Privately-educated heir to £230million pie fortune, 23, 'stabbed housemate 12 times in the neck' on Christmas Eve - as locals say 'clean-living, wholesome' pair were the perfect neighbours

Dylan Thomas has been charged with murdering William Bush, 23, in CardiffThomas, also 23, is the grandson of tycoon Sir Gilbert Stanley Thomas

A privately-educated heir to a £230million pie fortune has been accused of ‘stabbing his housemate 12 times in the neck’ – as locals said the ‘clean-living, wholesome’ pair were the perfect neighbours.

Dylan Thomas, 23, has been charged with the murder of his best friend, who he was at public school with.

Will Bush, also 23, was found dead in a newly-built house, owned by Thomas’s grandfather Sir Stanley Thomas, a Welsh tycoon behind a business empire including Peter’s Pies.

Will, a surveyor with a commercial property agent, had been stabbed in the neck 12 times.

Locals heard screams on the morning of Christmas Eve. Detectives and forensic officers spent two weeks at the scene in Llandaff, Cardiff, where flowers were laid by shocked friends.

Dylan Thomas, 23, has been charged with murder of his housemate Will Bush

The body of Will, 23, was found at his home in Cardiff’s Llandaff area on Christmas Eve

Locals said the pair were ‘clean-living and wholesome’ young men who were perfect neighbours.

Thomas was a tenant of the property jointly owned by his grandparents and Wales rugby legend Gareth Edwards.

The £425,000 property where they live was built by former Wales and British Lions scrum-half Terry Holmes.

Computer programmer Thomas moved in with his black Labrador two years ago and Will joined him a few months later.

The pair became friends when they were both pupils at Christ College in Brecon.

Will’s heartbroken father David Bush is deputy head at the private school.

Llandaff village was busy with last-minute Christmas shoppers when screams were heard coming from the house.

It’s believed a woman friend off the pair called in and found the distressing scene.

Dylan Thomas is the grandson of Sir Gilbert Stanley Thomas — the Welsh tycoon behind a business empire that included Peter’s Pies

William Bush, 23, who was decribed as ‘loyal, funny and caring’ was found with injuries at an address in Chapel Street at about 11.30am on Sunday, December 24

An assistant at the florist shop next door said: ‘It looked like she had found the man with knife wounds and tried to save him. Her hands were covered in blood.

‘The next thing there were police everywhere and I saw a man on the floor with two officers on top of him.”

Thomas was due to appear at Cardiff Crown Court on January 2 but refused to enter the dock. He was remanded in custody in his absence.

His great-grandfather, Sir Thomas Stanley Thomas, launched pie giant Peter’s back in 1971.

He died in 2015, aged 98, with his funeral being attended by Gareth Edwards and former Union and League star Jonathan Davies, now a TV pundit.

Thomas is the sole director of three tech companies listed at the property just a two-minute walk from Llandaff Cathedral.

Tributes have been paid to rugby-loving Will, who worked as a surveyor with a commercial property company.

His devastated family said: ‘Will was such a loyal, funny and caring son, brother and boyfriend.’

Dylan Thomas, pictured with his mother, was educated at the private Christ College in Brecon

Multi-millionaire Sir Stanley Thomas, 82, was knighted in 2006 for services to business

Multi-millionaire Sir Stanley Thomas, 82, received a knighthood in 2006 for his services to business.

Originally from Merthyr Tydfil, his father, also called Stanley Thomas, began selling meat pies in the Valleys in the 1950s.

Sir Thomas and his brother Peter Thomas took over the running of the business, which was named Peter’s Savoury Products, when their father retired in 1986.

The company stayed in the family for years before being sold to Grand Metropolitan in 1988 for £75million.

The family’s commercial interest in the business ended there but it went on to change ownership a number of times and had a turnover of £57million last year.

They also owned a fifth share of the TBI group, which owned Cardiff International and a number of other airports.

In 2004, their sale of the group to Spanish company Albertis made the family more than £100million between them.

Sir Stanley has also invested in his hometown’s rugby club and has been involved with multiple charities.