A driver who killed a man and mowed down others with his car during a drink-fuelled Christmas Day rampage in London‘s West End has been jailed for life.
Anthony Gilheaney, 32, was handed a minimum sentence of 37 years for the violent attacks he launched against five people in the early hours of December 25 2024.
This included using his high-powered Mercedes to hit and kill 25-year-old Aidan Chapman.
He also knocked over Arif Khan with his car before getting out to physically attack him.
Gilheaney used a racial slur and deliberately drove at three others – Marcelo Basbus-Garcia and his partner Miguel Waihrich, and Mr Chapman’s friend, Tyrone Itorho.
The prosecution at his Old Bailey trial alleged he targeted people for racist and homophobic reasons.
Jurors found him guilty of murdering Mr Chapman, attempting to murder Dr Basbus-Garcia and Mr Itorho and wounding Mr Khan with intent in December.
Gilheaney was cleared of attempting to murder Mr Waihrich, but was convicted of the alternative charge of causing him grievous bodily harm with intent.
Sentencing him at the same court on Friday, Mrs Justice McGowan said: ‘Aidan Chapman’s death is at the centre of these proceedings and the loss to his family and friends is a the front of the court’s mind.
Anthony Gilheaney, 32, was handed a minimum sentence of 37 years for the violent attacks he launched against five people in the early hours of December 25, 2024
Aidan Chapman, 25 (pictured), died in hospital after being hit by a car in the early hours of December 25, 2024
Image is taken from Gilheaney’s interview with police after the attack
‘He was a popular and well-liked man, his family are devastated. Their lives and the lives of all the other affected have been permanently altered by the defendant’s behaviour that night.’
The 32-year-old from Harlow, Essex, told the jury at his trial that he was not in control of his vehicle on the night of the rampage.
He said he had been attacked by a group of men earlier that evening, adding that he did not intend to hurt anyone.
The trial heard that Gilheaney left a nightclub in the early hours of Christmas Day 2024 and got into an argument with a complete stranger.
He then punched another person and attacked Hardeep Singh, a Sikh man, out of the blue as he walked along Shaftesbury Avenue.
Gilheaney then got into his car and started shouting abuse at Mr Khan, calling him a ‘P***’.
When Mr Khan went into the street to confront Gilheaney, the defendant drove forward before reversing back, knocking him to the ground.
Gilheaney got out of the car and attacked Mr Khan, throwing him to the ground and kicking him.
Mr Singh returned with friends and found Gilheaney attacking Mr Khan in Archer Street before he and his group beat up the defendant, the trial was told.
The incident was recorded on the dashcam of an Uber driver, whose vehicle Gilheaney rammed into after he got into his own car.
The defendant then drove up and down the street, mounting the kerb and causing pedestrians to flee in panic.
Dash cam footage captured Gilheaney on his booze-fuelled rampage across London’s West End
Harrowing CCTV showed Gilheaney mounting the pavement on a busy London street
He drove at Dr Basbus-Garcia and Mr Waihrich who were walking along the street holding hands, having been to midnight mass, and further along Shaftesbury Avenue, driving into Mr Chapman and Mr Itorho.
Mr Chapman was hit full on, suffering catastrophic brain damage, and died in hospital on New Year’s Eve.
In a victim impact statement from Mr Chapman’s mother Yasemin Akcakoca, read to the court by prosecutor Crispin Aylett KC, she said of her son: ‘He was funny, caring, and full of life.
‘He had so many qualities that made everyone who knew him love him.’
She said she had been Christmas shopping with her son the day before Gilheaney hit him.
His father Darren Chapman said: ‘Anthony Gilheaney is a monster. He has shown no remorse for what he has done.’
He added: ‘Aidan was an innocent victim of Gilheaney’s heinous actions that evening.’
When James Scobie KC, mitigating, said ‘there is genuine remorse here’, Mr Chapman’s relatives in the court shook their heads.
Mr Scobie said Gilheaney had been ‘living a pretty feral existence from a fairly young age, in which cars are very much his life’.
Dr Basbus-Garcia said in his written statement: ‘I thought I was going to die; the driver had no mercy.’
He said he now needs a cane to walk and his partner, Mr Waihrich, a chef, said he has been told he may never be able to work again.
Following the attacks, police spotted Gilheaney’s erratic driving and gave chase.
Pictured: The scene on Shaftesbury Avenue in central London after a car was driven onto the pavement
The defendant eventually jumped out of his moving car and ran off, leaving the vehicle to smash into a signpost.
Officers later found him passed out in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Holborn, central London.
Gilheaney was said to have been tearful and apologetic to police at the scene, telling one officer: ‘I hold my hands up, I don’t care… I am sorry for everything I have ever done. I will admit to everything. I am guilty. I am sorry.’
But when he was later formally interviewed, he claimed he could not remember anything or identify himself driving the car on CCTV camera footage.
Gilheaney told jurors he had drunk up to six cans of a vodka cocktail mix before he arrived at a bar that night and admitted he had driven before in a ‘tipsy’ condition.
He said a friend spiked his vape with cannabis while they were in the club which made him angry but he was persuaded to stay.
He was drunk when midnight came and left soon afterwards, explaining that he was later circling back to find his pregnant girlfriend.
Gilheaney, who has never had a driving licence but told the court he has ‘always’ liked being at the wheel of powerful cars, accepted that his motoring history is ‘shocking’.
It includes dangerous driving and, since he did not have a licence, Gilheaney said he used false number plates to help cover his tracks whenever parking tickets or other offences triggered interest in the vehicle.
Gilheaney had a number of aliases and 40 previous convictions dating back as far as 2008 when he was aged 14.
Mrs Justice McGowan said she accepted Gilheaney had had a ‘difficult upbringing’, but did not accept the defence suggestion that his use of racist language did not mean he was racist.
‘He holds deeply racist attitudes towards Asian members of the public,’ the judge said.
Gilheaney’s 37-year minimum term takes into account three charges to which he previously pleaded guilty – dangerous driving, causing death by driving while disqualified and possession of a bladed article.
He has also been disqualified from driving for life.
After Gilheaney was taken down, Mrs Justice McGowan said: ‘May I thank in particular the family of the deceased and the other people who are here having given evidence or who have been badly injured in some cases in this incident, which was undoubtedly terrifying.’
