Geoffrey Reed murder: Three jailed for child rapist killing Published duration 4 April 2013

image caption Stuart Wareham, Lee Wareham and Benjamin Walter murdered Geoffrey Reed in a "terrifying attack"

Three men have been jailed for life for murdering a sex offender from Dorset.

Stuart Wareham, 26, his half-brother Lee Wareham, 33, and Benjamin Walter, 22, beat Geoffrey Reed to death, before putting his body in a suitcase and burying it in woodland.

At Winchester Crown Court, Stuart Wareham got a minimum 20-year term. The other men must serve at least 18 years.

Reed, who spent time in jail for raping two people including a child, was killed at home in Cecil Road, Boscombe.

Passing sentence, Judge John Griffith Williams said Reed, 57, was "brutally murdered" in a "terrifying attack".

'Vulnerable and frail'

He said Stuart Wareham, who shared Reed's flat, was "principally responsible" but the other defendants, of no fixed address, were "willing participants".

image caption Geoffrey Reed was beaten to death

"Stuart Wareham killed him not because he considered him a paedophile, but because he saw an opportunity to take his flat," he said.

The judge added: "No defendant is in the least bit remorseful."

Simon Jones, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said Reed was "vulnerable and frail" when he was beaten to death on 7 June.

"While it is true that Mr Reed was a convicted sex offender this cannot justify the brutal attack on him and from which he died," he said.

The killers buried his body in a shallow grave at Lytchett Matravers, near Poole. They told police he had gone to Weymouth for a few days.

But officers were suspicious and used sniffer dogs to find a possible burial site on 12 June.

The body, which showed signs of "horrendous" blunt force injuries, was disinterred the next day.

Speaking after sentencing, Det Insp Stewart Balmer from Dorset Police praised the "brave" witnesses who came forward and helped police to catch the killers.