Three men deny murder after man died in flat
THREE men have denied murdering a 54-year-old man in New Tredegar. Darren Evesham, Ieuan Harley, and David Osbourne appeared at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday, where they pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Gaut, who was found dead at a flat in Long Row, New Tredegar, on August 5.
At a hearing before the Recorder of Cardiff, Judge Eleri Rees, the defendants were also asked to give their plea regarding a charge of perverting the course of public justice.
The particulars of this offence include: moving the body of David Gaut from the scene of his death at Flat Three, Long Row, to his own home at Flat One, Long Row; attempting to clean the blood of David Gaut from surfaces in Flat Three; attempting to conceal and dispose of blood-stained clothing and other items by placing them into a carrier bag and throwing it down a nearby riverbank; disposing of a knife used in the killing of David Gaut; destroying items relevant to the investigation of the death of David Gaut by setting fire to a Peugeot car in the car park behind Long Row; attempting to dispose of a bleach bottle, used in the cleaning of blood at Flat Three, in a waste bin at Flat Seven, Long Row; deleting from a mobile phone belonging to Osbourne text messages and records of audio calls made on August 4 between that phone and one belonging to David Gaut and the contact details of David Gaut on the same phone; and disposing of a mobile phone belonging to Evesham.
Osbourne, 51, of Long Row, pleaded guilty to this charge but his barrister, Jeffrey Jones, said he only accepted guilt for some of the particulars of the offence and not all of them.
Evesham, 47, from Powell’s Terrace, New Tredegar, and Harley, 23, of no fixed address, pleaded not guilty to that charge.
Prosecutor Michael Jones QC said the prosecution were in the process of sorting through evidence such as shoe examination, statistical analysis of DNA evidence, and an examination of Evesham’s mobile phone. He also said CCTV evidence would be available.
A provisional date for a trial, which is estimated to last four weeks, has been set for January 16.
The defendants were remanded in custody to appear next at a pre-trial review hearing, a date for which has not been set.