Getaway driver jailed for life for the murders of teenagers Mason Rist and Max Dixon
19 November 2024, 11:50 | Updated: 19 November 2024, 12:31
Getaway driver Antony Snook, 45, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 38 years for the murders of two teenagers.
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Teenagers Mason Rist, 15, and Max Dixon, 16, died during a machete attack in a case of mistaken identity.
During the case at Bristol Crown Court, the jury previously heard how Snook drove Riley Tolliver, 18, and boys aged 15, 16 and 17 to and from Knowle West in Bristol on 27 January.
Mrs Justice May described how the "posse of armed teenagers" were driven to Bristol to exact revenge after a house was attacked.
Rist and Dixon were walking to get pizza at the time of the attack, with the group of teens wrongly identifying them as being responsible for bricks being thrown at a house in the Hartcliffe district earlier that evening.
After bricks were thrown, the court heard how Snook left the property with two of the boys - picking up the other en route before heading to Knowle West.
Speaking during sentencing, Mrs Justice May told Antony Snook, who was wearing a suit and tie, that it was "impossible to fathom" why he had agreed to drive the four boys in his car to the area.
"The boys you took were then 14, 15, 16 and 17," she told Bristol Crown Court.
"The three younger ones had long knives. The 17-year-old had a baseball bat. The recovered knives were truly fearsome," the judge continued.
"You would have experienced the atmosphere in that car. Felt the blood lust. Mason and Max, tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"It took those boys 33 seconds to chase and stab Mason and Max. All of this was captured by the CCTV camera on the front of Mason's home. It is profoundly distressing viewing."
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The court had previously heard how the group of four split in two, with each pair pursuing one of the boys.
The mother of Max Dixon told Bristol Crown Court how she rushed to the road where he was stabbed and cradled her son as he lay fatally injured on the pavement.
Leanne Ekland described hearing a car pull up outside her house and the words "Max has been stabbed", which she initially thought was a joke as she believed her son as in bed before realising he was not.
Arriving at the scene, she said: "I sat on the ground with Max's head between my legs, telling him to open his eyes. He said he just wanted to sleep.
"The paramedics were working on him, cutting away at his clothes. He was so pale."
Ms Ekland told how she screamed after being told at Southmead Hospital that her son would not survive his injuries.
Speaking during proceedings at Bristol Crown Court, the sister of Max Dixon, Kayleigh Dixon, told Antony Snook that his actions had traumatised her and her family.
"I wanted to start by saying it was 33 seconds for our lives to be changed," she said.
"The one thing I will constantly remember is him being in pain, dying in his blood. My lasting memory will be Max wanting to go to sleep."
Breaking down in tears and addressing Snook, she added: "I want you to know that you killed me that day. I can't sleep. I want you to know how much you have traumatised me.
"Max and Mason should have been safe. They will forever be 16.
"I do not believe I will fully recover and I hope that justice will be served, and you will spend the rest of your life suffering."
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