Man guilty of stabbing child killer to death

A MAN will be sentenced next month after being found guilty of stabbing a convicted child killer to death.

Ieuan Harley (23) murdered David Gaut after discovering he had been jailed for killing a 15-month-old boy in 1985.

Yesterday a jury found Gaut’s neighbour David Osborne (51) not guilty of murder or man- slaughter after he was accused of taking part in the killing.

Harley and Darran Evesham (47) were also found guilty of perverting the course of justice, a charge Osborne had admitted before the trial, after attempting to dispose of evidence of the killing.

During the trial Newport Crown Court heard Gaut was killed on the night of August 2 last year after his neighbours in Long Row, New Tredegar, discovered he had served 32 years in jail for killing toddler Chi Ming Shek in 1985.

Prosecutors alleged he was lured to neighbour Osborne’s flat and attacked with at least two knives, before being stabbed at least 150 times while he was still alive and another 26 times after his death, and his fingernails were also cut off.

At least one knife was said to have been used to kill Gaut and a screwdriver was later used to stab his dead body, leaving him with injuries that were so gruesome pictures were deliberately kept away from the jury.

A Peugeot car was set on fire hours after the killing, which Evesham later told a BBC reporter had contained bloodied sheets from the killing, which he claimed had been committed by “three spice addicts”.

Harley said he had been asleep in another room when Gaut was killed, while Evesham, who was cleared of murder earlier in the trial, denied helping get rid of evidence and moving Gaut’s body.

The jury at Newport Crown Court took over five hours to return their verdicts following a three-week trial.

Mr Justice Lewis remanded Harley, of no fixed address, Osborne, of Long Row, Elliots Town, and Evesham, from Powell’s Terrace, New Tredegar, in custody ahead of sentencing on March 25.