Barry Williams

Barry Kenneth Williams (1944 – 24 December 2014), known since 1994 as Harry Street, was a British spree killer. A foundry worker who lived with his parents, he shot eight people in the English Midlands towns of West Bromwich and Nuneaton in little over an hour on 26 October 1978, killing five. Following a high-speed car chase, he was arrested and in 1979 was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was detained in high-security hospitals under mental health legislation.

After being given a conditional release in 1994, he changed his name, moved to Wales, and married. In 2014, following allegations of harassment against his neighbours, he was convicted of further firearms offences. He was again ordered to be detained in a secure hospital, with little likelihood of release, and died in December 2014.

Background At the time of his first offence, Williams was an unmarried foundry worker. He lived at 14 Andrew Road on the Bustleholme Mill estate in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England with his elderly parents, Hilda and Horrace, who owned and ran a metal polishing business in Birmingham.

He held a valid firearms certificate, allowing him to possess a single semi-automatic weapon.

During the mid 1970s, he had been involved in a number of disputes with his neighbours, the Burkitt family, of 16 Andrew Road, alleging that the noise of their television and record player disturbed him and his parents. George died where he fell and Philip, wounded, ran into the house. Williams followed him, shooting him again and killing him. He then shot and killed George's wife, Iris. The injured were treated at Birmingham General Hospital.

After discharging a total of 23 rounds, Passing through Wednesbury, he shot through the windows of a barber's shop and two houses. some from his home. Lisa was killed immediately, and Michel died later in hospital. and was arrested the next morning, in Spring Gardens, Buxton, after a car chase at high speed, starting on the Derbyshire moors. This was on condition that he could be detained again if his behaviour warranted it. Michael Howard. Williams subsequently moved to Wales.

2013 incident

In October 2013, allegations arose that he had waged a campaign of harassment against his next-door neighbour.

At Birmingham Crown Court in October 2014, he pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing a prohibited firearm, to putting a neighbour in fear of violence, and to making an improvised explosive device. He also likened Williams's more recent behaviour to that leading up to the 1978 incident and said that "a similar tragedy had been narrowly averted". A spokesman for the police said, "There was no trace of Harry Street on any police systems; but it is thanks to the tenacity of a local police officer who, when the harassment escalated, made extensive checks which led her to Street's GP and his true identity."