Getaway driver Antony Snook jailed over murders of two teenagers who died in machete attack

Getaway driver Antony Snook has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 38 years over the murders of two teenagers.

Mason Rist, 15, and Max Dixon, 16, died in a machete attack after a case of mistaken identity.

Snook, 45, drove Riley Tolliver, 18, and boys aged 15, 16 and 17 to and from Knowle West in Bristol where they murdered Rist and Dixon on 27 January.

Snook, described by the sentencing judge as "the only adult" in the case, had driven Tolliver and the other boys, who for legal reasons cannot be named, as part of a revenge mission, Bristol Crown Court heard.

It followed bricks being thrown at a house in the Hartcliffe district earlier that evening.

Around an hour after that attack, Snook, a one-legged landscape gardener, left the property with two of the boys.

He picked up the other two in a nearby street before driving his Audi Q2 to Knowle West.

As he drove down Ilminster Avenue, they saw Rist and Dixon in the street, heading for a pizza.

Mistakenly believing the two boys had been responsible for the attack, Tolliver, who had a baseball bat, and the three teenagers armed with machetes jumped out of the car and chased after them.

Rist and Dixon were each pursued by two of the boys in an attack which lasted no more than 33 seconds from the car pulling up to the teenagers getting back in and leaving, CCTV footage shows.

Tolliver and the 15-year-old boy attacked Rist while the 16-year-old boy and 17-year-old boy chased Dixon.

The 17-year-old boy also struck Rist, who was lying injured on the ground, as he headed back to the Audi after attacking Dixon.

Both Rist and Dixon died in hospital in the early hours of 28 January.

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'Death was a matter of chance'

Mrs Justice May described Snook's actions as "so weak and cowardly" and said he could have refused to take the "posse of armed teenagers" to the scene.

She told him: "You assisted the armed boys. You knew they were carrying weapons.

"With knives in their hands and revenge in their minds, a very serious outcome was a certainty.

"Death was a matter of chance. You were the only adult. There were multiple opportunities for you to stop this madness."

The four teenagers will be sentenced on 16 December.

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