A "convicted baby killer" may have been the victim of vigilante justice after he was found murdered in a close knit village where locals claimed to have worked out his past.

David Gaut, 54, was discovered dead by police in his rented flat where he moved in alone just six weeks ago.

Three men have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Mr Gaut - but police refused to say he was the same man as the convicted killer freed from jail.

A man named David Gaut, then 21, was jailed for life in July 1985 for the murder and torture of a 17-month old boy just 11 miles from the village of New Tredegar, near Caerphilly, South Wales, where he recently moved to.

But locals told how feelings were running "very high" as people were convinced it was the same person as the child killer.

Over 30 years ago, Gaut was babysitting his girlfriend's son Chi Ming Shek - known as Marky - when he battered, kicked, and burned the sole of this child's foot.