THUG WHO MURDERED A CHILD KILLER
MAN, 23, GUILTY OF STABBING CHILD MURDERER TO DEATH IN VIGILANTE ATTACK
A CHILD murderer was enticed to a flat then stabbed dozens of times after neighbours uncovered his evil past.
David Gaut was found dead at his flat in New Tredegar last August with more than 150 stab wounds to his body.
Yesterday, a 23-year-old man was convicted of murdering the 54-yearold, who had been released from prison only weeks before. His coaccused was cleared of both murder and manslaughter.
Mr Gaut spent more than 32 years in jail for the murder of 17-month-old Chi Ming Shek – also known as Marky Pickthall – in 1985.
A trial at Newport Crown Court heard how Mr Gaut was lured to a neighbour’s flat after people in the area had discovered what he had done.
The jury in the case found Ieuan Harley, 23, guilty of murdering Mr Gaut, which he had denied.
David Osborne, 51, was found not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter.
Harley and co-defendant Darran Evesham, 47, were also found guilty of perverting the course of justice, which was admitted by Osborne.
Evesham was previously charged with murder, but he was acquitted of that charge part-way through the three-week trial at the direction of the judge.
The defendants remained emotionless as the verdicts were delivered by the jury of seven women and five men after five and a half hours of deliberation.
Prosecutor Ben Douglas-Jones QC told the court Harley had a number of previous convictions including battery, common assault, and a wounding where he gouged his victim in the eyes and called him a “nonce”.
Osborne also had previous convictions for wounding and common assault and a caution for possessing nunchucks in public place, while Evesham had a “long string” of convictions for violence and public disorder.
After the verdicts were given, defence barrister Caroline Rees QC, representing Harley, made an application for sentencing to be adjourned so a psychiatric report could be prepared.
Justice Clive Lewis said: “This is a serious matter, the sentence for murder is life and I have to fix the minimum term before a person can apply for parole. I will be prepared to delay sentence just in case there’s some psychiatric material in some way relevant in fixing the tariff.”
Harley, Osborne and Evesham will be sentenced at Newport Crown Court at 12pm on March 25.
The killing took place at Osborne’s flat in Long Row, Elliot’s Town, in August last year.
Opening the case, Mr Douglas-
Jones said: “[Mr Gaut] lived next door to Mr Osborne and had recently been released from prison having served over 32 years for the murder of a boy when Mr Gaut was 21 years old.
“The prosecution’s case is that Mr Osborne lured the deceased Mr Gaut to his flat and that Mr Harley in particular would do him very serious bodily harm or kill him.
“He was duly lured to the flat and he was killed through being repeatedly stabbed.”
The court heard Mr Gaut lived in flat one of Long Row, while Osborne lived next door at flat three.
Jurors were told the defendants had been researching Mr Gaut’s past on the internet and, upon learning that he was a child murderer, Harley told neighbours he would “chop him up and put him down the plughole”.
On the night of the murder Mr Gaut received a text from Osborne asking him to bring some DVDs around, but this was a ruse by the group to get the victim on his own.
Following the murder the three men picked up his body and moved him back to his own flat next door before cleaning Osborne’s flat.
Mr Gaut’s death came to light after the police received a call from a man named Michael Lewis who claimed to have heard the defendants talking when they thought he was asleep.
Mr Douglas-Jones said Mr Lewis attended the Ruperra Arms in New Tredegar with the three defendants on August 3 and they returned to Osborne’s flat that night.
Mr Lewis said he was lying on Osborne’s sofa with a quilt over his body and his eyes closed when he heard the three men talking about Harley killing Mr Gaut.
He claimed he heard them talking about moving Mr Gaut’s body and he heard Harley say: “We’re going to have to do something about that in there because it’s starting to f ****** smell”.
The next day Mr Lewis contacted the police and they attended Mr Gaut’s flat where they found his body.
Mr Douglas-Jones said: “He was assessed and was clearly dead having obviously been murdered. There were many stab wounds apparent to his body.
“Blood smeared on hallway walls showed the body had been dragged from the front door into the room.”
A post-mortem examination revealed Mr Gaut had been stabbed 150 times while he was still alive and there were 26 wounds caused after his death, to the front and right side of his neck.
His fingernails had been cut off after he died and the voice box and wind pipe were severely damaged, the court heard.
It is believed the cause of Mr Gaut’s death was due to catastrophic injuries to the aorta which caused a haemorrhage and led to a fatal loss of blood.
Osborne, Harley, and Evesham were subsequently arrested.
In his police interview Osborne, of Long Row, admitted Mr Gaut had been killed in his flat and admitted helping to clean the flat and get rid of bloody clothes, but he said he did this because he was scared of Harley, who he blamed for the murder.
During the trial Osborne claimed Harley was responsible for killing Mr Gaut in his flat while he was in the kitchen and said he saw his coaccused holding a knife over Mr Gaut’s dead body when he came out.
The defendant said he met Mr Gaut after he moved into the next door flat in Long Row in June 2018.
He described him as a friend and said they would see each other every two days or so.
When asked when he first found out Mr Gaut had been to prison, Osborne said: “He told me he had shot his wife and, on other occasions, he told me he had shot a soldier.
“I wasn’t interested. I thought: ‘If he has served 32 years what’s it to do with me?.’”
Harley, of no fixed abode, denied being responsible for Mr Gaut’s murder, but claimed he had punched him and gave him a bloody nose three days before his death, which he said was the reason for Gaut’s blood being on his clothes.
Evesham, of Powell’s Terrace, New Tredegar, said he had no involvement in or knowledge of Mr Gaut’s death.