In this article, which is part of a series on the 12 stories in the Harrogate district that shaped 2025, we look back at a murder that sent shockwaves through the local community. 

Just a short walk from Harrogate’s leafy town centre stands a block of flats one family will forever associate with tragedy.

Paul Tillett, 56, was brutally killed at the Strawberry Dale complex on September 29, 2024.

In October this year, Philip Watson, 35, was sentenced to life imprisonment for muder.

The crime sent shockwaves through Harrogate and the details of the killing likely left many people deeply disturbed.

North Yorkshire Police officers found Mr Tillett’s body bound and gagged.

A vulnerable schizophreniac who had struggled with drug misuse throughout his life, he operated an open-door policy at his flat, which was owned by housing association Sanctuary.

Watson and other drug users frequently abused this by using the flat to drink and take illicit substances.

Those who knew Watson described him as a bully and a psychopath who had a vendetta against Mr Tillett in the lead-up to the murder.

Watson punched a hole in Mr Tillett’s wall on May 31, 2024, and told him he “would smack him”. On that occasion, Watson did not follow through with the threat and left the flat, but Mr Tillett reported the incident to the police.

He returned the following day and kicked his way into the flat, before threatening Mr Tillett with a knife and lunging at him. 

As Watson searched for a syringe to take drugs, Mr Tillett again called police.

When Watson heard him speaking to officers he called him a “grass” – a word he used repeatedly during the murder – and it is believed this was the motive behind the killing.

Watson was arrested for the latter incident and banned from contacting Mr Tillett and visiting his flat at Strawberry Dale.

The fatal attack

But the ban wasn't effective. Mr Tillett and several named drug users, including Watson, his co-accused Jason Johnson and a witness named Laura Gwynn, were at his flat on the night of September 28, 2024.

The exact time of the killing has never been established, but it is believed to have happened in the early hours of the following morning.

Watson tied his victim up and punched, kicked and stamped on him, before setting fire to his hair by using an aerosol can as a makeshift flamethrower.

He cut Mr Tillett's nose and ear with nail clippers, stabbed him in the buttock, suffocated him with a pillow, choked him with a ligature and stuffed a bread bun in his mouth.

In one final act of humiliation, Watson carved a “W” into Mr Tillett’s forehead.

Ms Gwynn, who died about a month after the murder, claimed Watson forced her to watch the ordeal.

But the murder was not reported to police until the evening of September 29 and Ms Gwynn refused to cooperate with officers unless bail conditions preventing her and her then-partner from seeing each other were dropped.

She never gave an official statement to the police, nor did she provide a DNA sample.

Watson and 27-year-old Jason Johnson were arrested the following day.

The trial

Watson, despite being described by Mr Justice Hilliard as “extremely uncooperative” with court proceedings, pleaded guilty to murder on April 30, 2025.

Mr Johnson admitted he was present during the attack but denied being involved with the killing.

His trial began at Leeds Crown Court on June 11 this year, when Jamie Hill KC, prosecuting, described Watson was the “main offender” but alleged Mr Johnson encouraged him to kill.

The prosecution case relied heavily on accounts by Ms Gwynn, who told various different stories about what happened on the fateful night.

Ms Gwynn told some people Mr Johnson was involved in the attack but told others he was simply forced to be there and did not play a part in killing Mr Tillett.

The trial was brought to a dramatic end on June 27, when Mr Justice Hilliard concluded it would be unsafe to convict Mr Johnson based solely on Ms Gwynn’s accounts as she “said different things on different occasions”. As Ms Gwynn refused to cooperate with police and died before the trial began, there was no way of clarifying her story. 

The jury was ordered to acquit Mr Johnson and he walked free from court that day. 

Watson 'took pleasure' in inflicting suffering

At sentencing on October 3, Watson was ordered to spend at least 31 years and 108 days behind bars for the murder.

His life of crime started when he was just 13 and spanned two decades.

He had 84 previous convictions and been jailed three times before the murder.

The killer's mother disowned him when he was 14, the court heard.

Psychiatrists found Watson to be suffering from depression, ADHD, antisocial personality disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder.

In the months before the killing, Watson had reported experiencing extreme paranoia and suicidal thoughts. He said he had self-harmed and felt anxious and depressed, and his partner had died sometime before the murder.

Watson has previously been admitted to psychiatric care and had been prescribed anti-psychotic medication, but his defence said his long-term use of cocaine and cannabis were also key contributors to his behaviour.

Watson showed little discernible signs of remorse. He even told a member of prison staff Mr Tillett “deserved” what happened to him.

He was also no stranger to torture. The court was shown footage, shot by Watson, of another victim who was tied to a chair and injured. Watson ordered the man to repeat he was a “muppet”, had not had sex in 30 years and was a “grass”.

The court heard Watson also bragged about taking a woman hostage and plying her with drugs, before telling her he had killed her son and “hid the body in Paul Tillett’s sofa”.

Watson even appeared determined to disrupt his own sentencing hearing by refusing to leave his cell to attend the hearing. He threatened members of prison staff and self-harmed in protest. When he eventually came into the courtroom, he was handcuffed and remained silent.

Passing sentence, Justice Hilliard said Watson “took pleasure in humiliating others and making them suffer”.

He said the killer expressed a “great deal of enthusiasm” towards inflicting pain, suffering and humiliation on Mr Tillett, and described the murder as sadistic.

Mr Tillett was described by his family as a “gentle giant”, who lived life with a “soft heart”. They lost a son, a brother and a father.

Mr Tillett's mother, Marjorie, who is in her 90s and did not attend court, said in a pre-prepared statement: “He was the apple of my eye... I'm heartbroken, no mother should have to be doing this, no mother should have to bury their child.”