Informative · Courts

A driver just got jailed for dragging a headteacher to death

3 November 2026 · 3 November 2026Share

A 2025 Volvo XC90 II in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. File photo. — Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0

A driver has just been jailed for murdering a headteacher in Greater Manchester.

He dragged him under his car for more than a mile.

Simon Richardson is 35. He has no fixed address.

A judge at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court sentenced him a few hours ago. Life, with a minimum term of twenty-five years.

So who did he kill? Michael Mullins. He was 56. He was the headteacher of Stretford Grammar School. And he was a father of two.

Here's what happened. Six and a half months ago, on the evening of 20 April, Mr Mullins was cycling home from school.

Richardson was driving a Volvo XC90. He went straight through give-way markers at a junction in Altrincham. Straight into Mr Mullins's path.

Mr Mullins fell onto the bonnet. Then the windscreen. Then he was pulled underneath the car.

He got tangled in the suspension.

And Richardson kept driving.

So here's the part that turned this into murder, not just a crash.

The Crown says Richardson drove to a secluded farm track. Wet Gate Lane, in Lymm. About 1.3 miles from the crash. He was trying to get rid of Mr Mullins.

Prosecutors had a line for that. They called Mr Mullins the single, solid piece of evidence of what he was driving away from.

That's the Crown saying Richardson was trying to erase the one thing that could convict him. A dying man.

Richardson twice tried to pull Mr Mullins out from under the car. Then he veered sharply from side to side. He mounted a grass verge.

Mr Mullins was finally freed. And then Richardson reversed over him. And drove off.

A motorcyclist followed a trail of blood. He found Mr Mullins alone on the verge, barely breathing. Mr Mullins died at the scene. About forty minutes after he was first hit.

Richardson's cousin, Gabrielle Debotte, was in the car with him. She told the trial they both heard moaning coming from outside the vehicle as Richardson drove away.

That's a passenger saying she heard the man he was dragging. And he kept driving anyway.

The rest of this story is for Silver and Gold members.

Richardson was arrested the next day, after a police chase.

He denied murder. He told the court he never realised Mr Mullins was underneath his car. That is why, he said, he never got out to free him.

The jury did not believe him. They found him guilty three days ago, after a trial that ran more than two weeks.

Now, the sentencing.

Mrs Justice Brunner KC told Richardson he had shown an astonishing degree of disregard for human life.

She said he heard Mr Mullins moaning under the car for several minutes. She said he knew he was dragging a man he believed was conscious along an abrasive road surface. For four and a half minutes. And she said she did not believe his remorse was real.

So what kind of man was driving that car?

Prosecution counsel Phil Barnes KC told the court Richardson had twenty-eight previous convictions. A significant history of driving offences, going back to 2011. Careless driving. Failing to stop after an accident. Drink-driving. Driving while disqualified and uninsured.

He was also on bail when he killed Mr Mullins. For affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Defence counsel Jaime Hamilton KC argued there was no premeditation. He said Richardson never intended to use his car as a weapon. He said Richardson had expressed remorse through his legal team.

The judge was not persuaded.

Alongside the murder sentence, Richardson got a concurrent eighteen-month term. That's for the dangerous driving during the police chase the next day. And he was banned from driving for life.

Sarah Mullins was married to Mr Mullins for twenty-seven years. She gave a victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing. She says quote "brutally and callously torn apart".

Elizabeth Baxter, the acting headteacher of Stretford Grammar School, says Mr Mullins led the school for seventeen years.

It is not known whether Richardson will appeal.

A man cycled home from work. And he never arrived.

Twenty-five years is the minimum his family will wait before anyone can even ask for his killer's release.

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A driver just got jailed for dragging a headteacher to death

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