Three men who killed a Boscombe man and buried him in a shallow grave have been handed life sentences.
Stuart Raymond Wareham of Bournemouth, aged 26, his half brother Lee Raymond Wareham, 33, and 22-year-old Benjamin Henry Walter, both of no fixed abode, killed Geoffrey Reed in his flat on Cecil Road in Boscombe on Thursday, 7 June 2012.
The three offenders were found guilty of murdering the 57-year-old at Winchester Crown Court on 3 April 2013.
At the same court, Stuart Wareham was today sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 20-year term. The other two men must serve a minimum of 18 years behind bars before being considered for parole.
As part of the court proceedings, evidence was heard about the victim’s previous sex offending. However, when sentencing the three men, the judge, Mr Justice Griffith Williams, said: “Stuart Wareham killed Geoffrey Reed not because he was a paedophile but with the hope to take over his flat so that he and Henry Walter, with whom he was besotted, could live together. He persuaded the others to join in and everything had been planned.
“Important text messages prove that they decided Geoffrey Reed had to be quickly disabled.
“This was by any view a prolonged assault and what has emerged is that no defendant is the least bit remorseful.
“If any of them still believe that Geoffrey Reed deserved to die because he was a paedophile then the sooner they realise there is no justification for their wickedness the better.”
During the trial, evidence was heard that Dorset Police first received a report that Geoffrey Reed was missing on Sunday 10 June 2012. The circumstances were suspicious and it was believed, but not confirmed, that he may have been killed.
Uniformed officers and detectives acted promptly on this information arresting two people that night and the third offender on 12 June 2012.
On Wednesday 13 June Mr Reed’s body was excavated from a shallow grave in woodland off Huntick Road in Lytchett Matravers near Poole. He had been buried in a large suitcase and had suffered horrendous injuries.
The three arrested men, who all denied the offence, were jointly charged with murder on 14 June 2012.
