West Midlands Police<\/a> \u2019s investigation established how Griffin\u2019s accomplice Wesley McDonnell had arrived at a nearby Co-op store at the same time as Neil, around 30 minutes before the attack.<\/p>\nMcDonnell was seen on CCTV looking at Neil\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n
He then picked up Griffin nearby and the men were then pictured following Neil\u2019s car as it left the car park on the short journey to the rehabilitation centre, where the attack happened.<\/p>\n
![\"Victim](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Neil-ODonnell-JPG.jpg\")
Victim Neil O’Donnell was visiting his partner at a Hall Green rehabilitation centre at the time he was attacked <\/p>\n
Griffin, aged 54, was captured on CCTV dumping his top and cap in a wheelie bin as he fled the scene on foot after the botched robbery and both men were identified by officers.<\/p>\n
Wesley McDonnell, aged 46, was identified thanks to facial recognition from CCTV images, with further enquiries identifying Tony Griffin as his accomplice.<\/p>\n
The pair, both of College Road in the Kingstanding area of Birmingham, were both found guilty of manslaughter after a trial at Warwick Crown Court.<\/p>\n
![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_tony-griffin-wm-JPG.jpg\")
Tony Griffin <\/p>\n
Griffin had admitted attempted robbery at an earlier hearing, and McDonnell was found guilty of the same offence today.<\/p>\n
Griffin has 14 previous convictions for 32 offences, including burglary, robbery and kidnapping.<\/p>\n
McDonnell has 29 convictions for 85 offences, including burglary, wounding with intent and robbery. They will be sentenced in January.<\/p>\n
![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Wesley-McDonnell.jpg\")
Wesley McDonnell<\/p>\n
Detective Inspector Nigel Box, from the West Midlands force\u2019s Homicide team, said: \u201cThis was a violent attack on an elderly man who was simply going about his day.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see from the footage that the struggle lasted some time, and Griffin was clearly determined to take the watch, despite Neil resisting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to show that the injury to Neil\u2019s arm directly led to his death, and the CCTV showed Griffin and McDonnell as the two men involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are both career criminals and wrongly assumed Neil would be an easy target.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeil\u2019s death has been devastating for his family, who have asked for privacy while they continue to grieve. We have supported them throughout the court process, and our thoughts are with them today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Killers Tony Griffin and Wesley McDonnell plotted to steal Neil O\u2019Donnell’s watch using a screwdriver but the botched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[25375,855,748,30,188,393,4884,16,15,7830],"class_list":{"0":"post-585597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-billesley-and-hall-green","9":"tag-birmingham","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-west-midlands-police"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115590139085395152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"videoHeadline\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763765423_605_poster.jpg\")
Moment killers attack man with screwdriver for his watch and are later arrested <\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Robbery-still.jpg\")
This is the chilling moment killer Tony Griffin attacks Neil O\u2019Donnell, 83, in a car park off Cateswell Road in Hall Green, for his watch, which leads to the OAP’s death <\/p>\n