Wayne Milsom
Introduction
Wayne Milsom is a 51-year-old man from Keynsham, Somerset, England, who was jailed for 15 years, with a further four years on extended licence, for the manslaughter of Stephen Ridgeway, a frail 72-year-old man who died in hospital a month after being assaulted in his own home on Tenby Road, Keynsham, in the early hours of November 3, 2024. A jury at Bristol Crown Court unanimously convicted Milsom of manslaughter at a retrial in July 2026, a year after the same jury pool had acquitted him of murder but failed to reach a verdict on the lesser charge. Sentencing him on October 21, 2026, Judge Julian Lambert described what happened as “a cruel, callous and calculated attack on a vulnerable elderly man in his own home,” and told Milsom there was an element “close to torturing” the pensioner.
Background Information
Ridgeway was a slight, health-compromised man who lived with breathing difficulties and had broken his back the year before the attack. The court heard he had struggled with drug addiction through much of his life but had put it behind him, and detectives said he was well-known and liked in his community. He told police that two men forced their way into his home in the early hours of November 3, 2024, demanding drugs, and attacked him when he said he knew nothing about any drugs. The prosecution case was that Milsom believed there were drugs and money in the property. Ridgeway managed to call 999 himself, telling the ambulance service he was in “terrific pain” and describing pain in his chest and back, a lump on his head and a scratch to his neck.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted and sentenced. Milsom was convicted of manslaughter at a retrial in July 2026 and sentenced to 15 years’ custody with a four-year extended licence on October 21, 2026.
Ridgeway was admitted to hospital after the attack and found to have fractured ribs; the court heard he already suffered breathing problems, and that the chest trauma from the assault caused his respiratory deterioration and ultimately his death on December 7, 2024. DNA from Milsom was found on the top Ridgeway had been wearing and on items at the house, including a hammer, a champagne bottle and two knives. Milsom admitted being at the house when Ridgeway was injured but denied manslaughter, claiming Ridgeway had instigated the physical altercation; the jury did not believe him. At the earlier 2025 trial he was acquitted of murder, with the jury unable to reach a verdict on manslaughter, leading to the retrial. A second man, 35-year-old Ryan Robbins of Keynsham, was acquitted of all counts at the 2025 trial. Judge Julian Lambert told Milsom: “You have an appalling record for violence,” that “there was a clear causal link between Mr Ridgeway’s chest trauma, his swift respiratory deterioration and ultimately his death,” and that Ridgeway “was frail and would never have been any sort of threat to you.” He said medical conditions in Milsom’s psychiatric report “do not substantially reduce your culpability” and imposed a minimum of two-thirds of the custodial term before parole eligibility.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The prosecution told the retrial that Milsom had been high at the time of the attack, having consumed crack cocaine and alcohol that day, and pointed to a long history of violent offending, with the court told he had 21 recorded offences against the person, an offence of rape, and frequent disorder and weapons offences. The judge said that given that record it was “now entirely predictable” he would be violent whenever desperate for drink or drugs. Detective Chief Inspector James Wasiak, who led the investigation, said: “This has been a most unusual case in which the jury has heard Stephen explaining what happened, not then knowing that his injuries would prove fatal,” and that “Wayne Milsom tried to convince the jury that Stephen – a frail man in his seventies – was the aggressor. They rightly refused to believe him.” Ridgeway’s brother, also in his seventies and too unwell to attend court, said in an impact statement that Stephen had been his last living relative and that “the way in which Stephen died has caused me to feel very vulnerable and unsafe.”
Current Status
Milsom, 51, is serving a 15-year custodial sentence with an extended four-year licence period, and must serve at least two-thirds of the custodial term before he can be considered for parole. The sentencing hearing at Bristol Crown Court on October 21, 2026 heard in mitigation that he had expressed sorrow for Ridgeway’s death and had engaged positively while on remand. His acquittal of murder at the 2025 trial stands alongside the unanimous manslaughter conviction at the 2026 retrial, meaning the court’s final disposition is manslaughter rather than the murder charge he originally faced.
Impact on Their Career/Life
At 51, with an appalling record for violence already spanning decades, Milsom’s sentence places his release in his sixties and keeps him on licence into his seventies under the extended period. The case’s public significance lies in how it was resolved: a first trial that produced an acquittal on the most serious charge, then a retrial in which the jury heard the dying man’s own 999 call and convicted unanimously. For Ridgeway’s community in Keynsham, and for the brother who described spending 21 months too unwell and too distressed to grieve properly, the conviction recorded that the pensioner had posed no threat to the man who killed him and had died explaining his own injuries to an emergency call handler without knowing they would prove fatal.