Child’s killer ‘was lured to flat and killed by vigilantes’
A CONVICTED child killer was lured to his neighbour’s flat and stabbed more than 150 times by three men, a court heard yesterday.
David Gaut, 54, was killed by David Osborne, 51, Ieuan Harley, 23, and Darran Evesham, 47, days after they found out he had served more than 32 years in jail for murdering 17-month-old Chi Ming Shek in 1985, jurors were told.
Gaut’s body was discovered in his flat in New Tredegar, Caerphilly, on August 4 last year.
Ben Douglas-Jones QC, prosecuting, told Newport Crown Court the three men murdered Gaut in Osborne’s flat.
He told the jury: “Mr Osborne lured Mr Gaut to his flat, intending, with Mr Harley and Mr Evesham, they would together cause him really serious bodily harm or kill him.
“He was duly lured to the flat and was duly repeatedly stabbed to death.”
Mr Douglas-Jones said after the murder, the men dragged Gaut’s body down an alleyway and into his flat.
They then “cleaned Osborne’s flat, tried to dispose of bloodied clothing and set fire to a car to destroy incriminating
‘We’re gonna have to cut him up and take him to get rid of him’
items”, he said. Osborne and Evesham, both from New Tredegar, and Harley, of no fixed address, deny murdering Gaut between August 1 and August 4 last year.
Harley and Evesham also deny perverting the course of justice, which Osborne admits.
Mr Douglas-Jones told jurors they must “weigh the evidence against each defendant in an analytic way without emotion affecting your judgment”.
He added: “By the same token, the deceased committed a vile offence himself. He did, however, serve over 32 years in prison.
“It is no part of your function or ours now to judge him. He was judged. He was sentenced.
“A murder carried out to punish someone is as much a murder as a murder carried out for no reason.”
The court heard that Gwent Police received a 999 call from a friend of the defendants Michael
Lewis on August 4 last year, reporting a conversation he allegedly overheard the previous night between the three men.
Police went to Gaut’s flat and found his bloodstained body.
Mr Lewis later told police he had been drinking with the defendants in a pub on
August 3 and they returned to Osborne’s flat together.
Mr Douglas-Jones said the trio thought Mr Lewis was asleep in a chair and began discussing the murder of Gaut, whom they knew as Dai. The prosecutor said: “Mr Lewis will say that he heard the three defendants talking about the fact that Harley had killed Dai because he had murdered a child, and after Harley stabbed him they cleaned up and put his body back in number 1.
“He heard the words, ‘the f ****** three of us had to carry him into his own place’.
“Ieuan Harley said at one point, ‘We are gonna have to do something about that in there ’cos it’s starting to f ****** smell’.
“He heard Harley say he had, ‘...stabbed him in the f ****** neck’.
“He specifically remembered one saying in the presence of the others, ‘We’re gonna have to cut him up and take him to get rid of him’.
“There was talk about cutting fingernails off, flushing them down the toilet, a discussion about throwing a thumb in the river.”
The trial continues.
Chi Ming Shek was killed by Gaut