Homeless Aaron Barley jailed for murder of mother and son who took him in

A homeless man who murdered a mother and her 13-year-old son after the family took him in off the streets has been jailed for at least 30 years.

Aaron Barley was told he "may never be released" as he was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court for the murders of Tracey Wilkinson, 50, and her 13-year-old son Pierce at their home in Stourbridge, in the West Midlands.

The 24-year-old admitted stabbing Mrs Wilkinson 17 times with a kitchen knife as she was in bed, and Pierce Wilkinson eight times, but had "shown no remorse" for his actions, the court heard.

In fact, judge Mrs Justice Carr said, Barley had at times following the killings shown "satisfaction in what you did achieve".

Mrs Wilkinson first spotted Barley sleeping in a cardboard box outside a Tesco supermarket in Stourbridge in March 2016, and decided she wanted to help him.

She and her husband Peter, 47, arranged for him to stay at a hostel for a few days and Mr Wilkinson, a company director who runs a safety barrier manufacturing firm, also gave him a job at one of his businesses in Newport in South Wales.

Barley occasionally had breakfast and dinner at the family home, but later started taking drugs and lost his job as a result.

Mr Wilkinson returned home one day, several months later, to find Barley asleep "like a bundle in the corner of the drive" and the family decided to help him again.

Barley had Christmas dinner with the family and ate a curry with them three weeks before carrying out the "vicious and unprovoked attack" on 30 March, when he broke into the house, disguised in black, in the early hours.

The court heard details of warning signs in the months and weeks before the murders, including death threats and a post on Facebook which said: "I’ve got to go and try and get some help before I go on a killing spree."

Mr Wilkinson, who was at home on the night, was also attacked, but survived the brutal assault.

Daughter Lydia Wilkinson, 19, was away at university at the time.

Sentencing Barley, Mrs Justice Carr told him: "You abused your knowledge of the family home, which you had only gained through the Wilkinsons’ extraordinary kindness and generosity to you.

"You knew that you were destroying the family. It is what you intended."

The judge described "chilling" security camera footage, recovered from the family home, showing Barley "crawling" on all fours around the Wilkinsons’ back garden moments before launching the "violent and sustained assault, involving severe force".

She told Barley he "clearly" represented a "very significant risk of serious harm to members of the public" and sentenced him to a minimum term of 30 years in jail, but decided not to impose a whole-life tariff because of his age.

(c) Sky News 2017: Homeless Aaron Barley jailed for murder of mother and son who took him in