Ieuan Harley stabbed Gaut over 150 times in Gaut’s neighbour’s flat in south Wales in August

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A man has been found guilty of stabbing a convicted child killer to death.

Ieuan Harley, 23, murdered David Gaut after discovering he had been jailed for killing a 15-month-old boy in 1985.

On Monday, a jury found Gaut’s neighbour David Osborne, 51, not guilty of murder or manslaughter after he was accused of taking part in the killing.

Harley and Darran Evesham, 47, were also found guilty of perverting the course of justice, a charge Osborne had admitted before the trial, after attempting to dispose of evidence of the killing.

During the trial, Newport crown court heard Gaut was killed on the night of 2 August last year after his neighbours in Long Row, New Tredegar, discovered he had served 32 years in jail for killing toddler Chi Ming Shek in 1985.

Prosecutors alleged he had been lured to Osborne’s flat then stabbed at least 150 times while he was still alive and another 26 times after his death. His fingernails were also cut off.

At least one knife was said to have been used to kill Gaut and a screwdriver was later allegedly used to stab his dead body, leaving him with injuries so gruesome that pictures were deliberately kept away from the jury.

A Peugeot car was set on fire hours after the killing, which Evesham later told a BBC reporter had contained bloodied sheets from the killing, which he claimed had been committed by “three spice addicts”.

Police later recovered heavily bloodstained clothing from a riverbank close to where Osborne and Evesham had been caught on CCTV walking.

Bloodied towels and sheets were found inside a black Sports Direct bag. A B&M Bargains bag found nearby contained blood-stained underwear, socks, a white T-shirt and grey Everlast tracksuit bottoms.

The jury at Newport crown court took over five hours to return their verdict following a three-week trial.

Mr Justice Lewis remanded the three men in custody before their sentencing scheduled for 25 March.