A man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 24 years after being found guilty of stabbing a convicted child killer to death.
Ieuan Harley, 23, tortured David Gaut by stabbing him at least 150 times after discovering he had recently completed a 32-year jail sentence for killing 15-month-old Chi Ming Shek in 1985.
Gaut was killed in his neighbour’s flat before having his fingernails removed and being stabbed a further 26 times after his death with a screwdriver, leaving him with injuries so gruesome they were kept away from the jury during his killer’s trial.
Harley’s friends David Osborne, 51, and Darran Evesham, 47, helped him move Gaut’s body from Osborne’s flat back to his own at Long Row, New Tredegar, before helping to remove evidence from the flat.
Police later recovered heavily blood-stained clothing inside a black Sports Direct bag from a riverbank close to where Osborne and Evesham were caught on CCTV walking later that night.
Harley was found guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice, Evesham was found guilty of perverting the course of justice, while Osborne was cleared of murder after he had admitted perverting the course of justice.
On Monday at their sentencing hearing, Harley’s actions were described as “savage” and “brutal”, as the court heard he had a number of violent convictions to his name.
Prosecutor Ben Douglas-Jones QC said Harley also had history of attacking men he believed were child abusers, after previously strangling and gouging the eye of a disabled man he had wrongly believed to be a “nonce”.
He told Newport Crown Court: “Harley was in Cardiff city centre when he attacked a man sat in a mobility scooter, having been told by people he was with was a ‘nonce’.
“That was not correct, but he took the man by the neck in a stranglehold and eye gouged him, leading to him being admitted to hospital and with an eye infection from a tear to his cornea.”
Mr Justice Lewis said Gaut had experienced “real suffering” at Harley’s hands before he was “brutally” murdered and mutilated after his death.
The judge said: “You carried out a brutal and savage murder.
“He was stabbed repeatedly to his eyes, his face, head, and other parts of his body.
“You stabbed him repeatedly in his throat, cutting his voice box and wind pipe.
“You wanted to make him suffer, and you did before finally killing him.
“You discovered on the evening of August 2 that Mr Gaut had killed a child. From that time onward you were extremely angry and you intended to confront him and use serious violence against him.
“I’m sure when you attacked him with a knife you intended to kill him.”
Harley, of no fixed address, was jailed for life with a minimum of 24 years, while Evesham, from Powell’s Terrace, New Tredegar, was jailed for three years and six months, and Osborne, of Long Row, Elliots Town, for two years and four months.