Jimmy Prout is ‘worst he’s ever seen’

much at his beckoning. Some of these actions were at his demand. He allowed James, who was his friend and someone he called a brother, to be subjected to such appalling levels of violence. He just sat there and watched.”

Jimmy first met Zaman in 2008 and the pair became close friends.

After splitting with his then partner, Jimmy moved into a house near to his future killer, but police still do not know what made the cult-like group turn on their victim so savagely. DCI Fairlamb said: “Why they have turned on him in this way only they know.

“This level of abuse, this level of bullying, is abhorrent to anyone who lives in 21st-century Great Britain.

“Edward, his brother, is distraught. He has struggled to be seated during the trial and struggled to listen to the evidence of what his brother went through before the end of his life. It will have a long-lasting effect, and Jimmy’s father is in ailing health but hopefully the conclusion of this trial will give them some sort of closure.”

As Jimmy was subjected to more and more abuse, he physically deteriorated to the point where he was little more than a shell.

CCTV footage captured a bearded Jimmy being dragged into the house on St Stephen’s Way, shortly before he died.

DCI Fairlamb believes neighbours could have noticed Jimmy was in trouble and his life might have been saved if someone had alerted the police.

He begged members of the public who spot anyone who appears to be in a similar state to pick up the phone. He said: “Just before his death Jimmy was somebody who was obviously in very, very ailing health and someone who needed medical, even emergency care. That would have been evident to anyone who saw him.

“I would urge anyone who sees anyone in an unfortunate position to pick up the phone.” KILLER Zahid Zaman may have had the appearance of a harmless disabled man as he moved around in his wheelchair but he had a dark side, a furious temper and a vengeful streak.

Prosecutors said Zaman had been in a sexual relationship with two of his co-accused and was described as being controlling towards them.

He continued living with Kay Rayworth even after starting go out with Myra Wood. Wood ended up living on the same street in Percy Main as Zaman and Rayworth, along the road in the same house as Jimmy Prout and Ann Corbett.

When Zaman started attacking “lackey” Jimmy, along with Corbett, the other two women stood by and did nothing to help.

All four then took part in the grim task of removing and dumping the body after he finally succumbed to a series of brutal beatings.

By early last year Zaman, 43, used a wheelchair, something he told people was necessary because of serious injuries he had sustained in a road traffic accident years earlier.

A number of witnesses saw Zaman walking and demonstrating himself to be physically capable, even to the extent of carrying out assaults, including attacking Rayworth with a stick in the street.

Prosecutors said Zaman was controlling and manipulative, able to persuade others to do his bidding and vengeful.

On one occasion, he fabricated an official letter with the result that a senior local government officer from North Tyneside Council was investigated by the police after a complaint made by Zaman about a housing officer.

The officer wrote him a letter dated August 7 2012 and Zaman was not happy with the content of this correspondence.

He took and kept the heading and ending to the letter, replaced the content with a series of insults, some of them racist, purportedly written about him.

Having fabricated this letter, Zahid Zaman consulted a solicitor and the upshot was that the officer was the subject of a formal investigation, which included being interviewed by the police under caution.

Prosecutor Paul Greaney said: “This was how Zahid Zaman dealt with perceived slights. He got his own back, and then some.”

Audio and video files were discovered on computer equipment seized from his home, following his arrest, on March 26 last year. It seems that Zaman was in the habit of recording conversations and the recordings provide further evidence of his controlling behaviour and explosive temper. Ann Corbett, 26, is the youngest member of the group and the court heard she had learning difficulties.

It seems that she met Jimmy Prout through attending a soup kitchen and, notwithstanding the difference in age, she formed a relationship with him.

It was for that reason that she ended up living at 75 St Stephen’s Way and became part of the group. Her brother also appears to have spent some time at number 75.

She had fallen out with Jimmy before his death, which may have been her motive for becoming involved in the murder. Rayworth is the oldest member of the group at 56. As a young woman, she married a man and they had two children together but divorced in the early 1990s.

She subsequently married another man, from whom she takes her surname. They purchased 35 St Stephens Way and lived there together. However, in about 2004, their relationship broke down and the two divorced, with Rayworth keeping the house.

In the aftermath of the divorce, Rayworth engaged in internet dating and she appears to have met Zahid Zaman, who was 13 years her junior, in that way.

A close friend of Rayworth recalled seeing Zaman’s profile on an internet dating site. It contained a photograph of Zaman with gold bullion.

At the start of the relationship, Zaman lived in Sheffield, but shortly afterwards, he moved up to Percy Main and began to live with Rayworth at 35 St Stephen’s Way as her partner.

Several of Rayworth’s friends and relatives describe how she became isolated from those to whom she had previously been close in the period that followed and she appeared to be under Zaman’s influence.

At the time of Jimmy’s death, she was employed as a carer. Wood, 50, originally from Berwick, first contacted Zaman in about 2009 via Facebook.

Over time, a relationship developed and she started to work as a cleaner.

In about July 2013, after serving a prison sentence for stealing from an elderly man, she moved to live at 75 St Stephen’s Way, where Jimmy Prout was already a tenant.

By the time Wood moved in, she was Zaman’s partner, but he nonetheless continued to live at number 35 with his former partner, Rayworth.

Just as with Rayworth, witnesses describe controlling behaviour on Zaman’s part towards Myra Wood. Jimmy Prout, 43, was the sixth of eight children, born to parents who lived in Newcastle. The children’s father worked away for much of the time and his wife, the children’s mother, struggled on her own. Most of the children, including Jimmy, spent time in care.

As an adult, Jimmy Prout formed a relationship Mandy Carter and together they had two children, but the relationship ended years before he died.

Jimmy appears to have lived a simple life, sometimes doing a little casual work, sometimes getting involved in low level crime, but always enjoying the company of his friends. He was liked by people and there is no doubt that there was a vulnerability to him.

By the mid to late 2000s, Jimmy was a regular user of homeless services in Newcastle, including soup kitchens. It is likely that it was at one such place he met Zaman who, notwithstanding that he had a settled address, tended to visit soup kitchens and food banks.

Jimmy began to live as a tenant at number 75 and became a member of the group.