Group Of Thugs, Including Teens, Convicted Of Murdering Dad-Of-Two For His Rolex Submariner

Two men and two teenage boys in Manchester, U.K. were convicted Thursday of murdering a 34-year-old man simply to rob him of his Rolex watch worth £13,000 ($18,262.86).

Manchester Crown Court convicted the organizer of the murder, Lewis Peake, 30, one of his accomplishes, Michael Wilson, 20, and two teenagers aged 14 and 17, of conspiracy to rob and the manslaughter of Steven McMyler. The court appearance of a fifth man, Jordan Short, 20, is scheduled for a later date owing to his illness, Liverpool Echo reported.

The teenagers weren’t identified due to legal reasons.

McMyler was killed in the early evening on Aug. 6, 2020, when he was sitting on a bench on Wigan parish church’s ground. McMyler had traveled to London intending to take a flight to Thailand but changed his mind and returned to Wigan. He had been drinking in a nearby pub with Peake who allegedly decided to rob the expensive 18-carat Rolex Submariner watch McMyler was wearing.

Peak initially tried to bribe two schoolboys with £100 to assault McMyler but when they refused, he approached the group consisting of Wilson, Short and the young boys after seeing them arrive from Kirkby to Wigan by train to carry out the assault.

Grainy CCTV footage recovered from the scene showed McMyler getting kicked forcefully to the head during the assault, BBC had reported last year. McMyler never gained consciousness and he was declared dead when the paramedics arrived.

The youngest member from the assailant group, then aged 13, then struck Peake in the head with a bottle and demanded cash. Peake managed to run away and later returned to the attack scene where McMyler lay unconscious "with his face purple." Without checking on McMyler, Peake made off with his phone and suitcase, according to BBC.

After his arrest, Peake told investigators that the group of assailants took £200 ($ 281.47) from him. The Rolex Submariner was never recovered.

"Steven was killed just because he was wearing a valuable watch and these four offenders have now been recognized for the crimes that they have committed. They may have gone to Wigan that day to rob Steven's belongings, but they ultimately have robbed him and his loved ones of his life, and for that, I am satisfied knowing that they will now be punished," Liverpool Echo quoted Greater Manchester Police Department’s Senior Investigating Officer Cheryl Chatterton, as saying.