The trial of three men accused of murdering child killer David Gaut has been told how the trio allegedly stabbed him more than 150 times.
David Osborne, 51, Ieuan Harley, 23, and Darran Evesham, 47, are charged with killing Gaut after discovering he had served more than 32 years in prison for murdering toddler Chi Ming Shek in 1985.
Gaut, 54, was found dead at his flat on Long Row in New Tredegar on Saturday, August 4, last year.
The trial, which began at Newport Crown Court on January 17, has been told how Gaut claimed he had been jailed for killing a soldier when he moved next door to Osborne, six weeks before his death.
Internet searches by neighbours revealed the truth about his past and the three defendants are alleged to have lured Gaut to Osborne’s flat – on the pretence of borrowing some DVDs – where they murdered him.
The prosecution has said all three men then moved the body out of the flat and back into his own home.
Pathologist Dr Derrick James carried out a post mortem and found at least 150 stab wounds all over Gaut’s body from at least one knife and a screwdriver – and his fingernails had been cut off after he died.
Bloodstained clothing dumped in a plastic bag matched the DNA of Gaut and prosecutors said the clothing matched items that the three had been caught on CCTV wearing.
Last week the jury was shown CCTV of Osborne and Evesham walking near the riverbank following Mr Gaut’s death.
Osborne, from Long Row, Elliots Town, New Tredegar; Harley, of no fixed address; and Evesham, from Powell’s Terrace, New Tredegar, all deny the murder of Mr Gaut between August 1 and 4 last year.
Harley and Evesham also deny perverting the course of justice, which Osborne admits.
• 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 New Tredegar.
Gaut was babysitting his girlfriend’s son Chi Ming Shek – known as Marky – when he battered, kicked, and burned the sole of the child’s foot.
The baby’s mum Jane Pickthall, then 23, had been out drinking and left Gaut to look after her two young children.
She arrived home in Caerphilly and made love to Gaut – but the next day she found her son’s dead body under a chest of drawers.
A murder trial at Cardiff Crown Court heard Gaut tried to make the death look accidental.