Kyle Bevan, a notorious child killer, was allegedly stabbed to death with “real efficiency” by fellow inmates Lee Newell, David Taylor and Mark Fellows who on trial for his murder
Kyle Bevan died from stab wounds(Image: MEN Media)
A prisoner allegedly shouted to two fellow inmates “nice doing business with you” after they stabbed a child killer to death with “real efficiency”, a court heard.
Kyle Bevan, a notorious child killer who took the life of his stepdaughter, two-year-old Lola James, was stabbed 25 times in his cell at HMP Wakefield in November last year before being “put to bed.”
Three of his fellow inmates – Lee Newell, 56, David Taylor and Mark Fellows, 45 – are all standing trial at Leeds Crown Court accused of his murder.
Bevan, who was in a cell on the fourth floor of the A-wing, was known to be a VP [vulnerable prisoner.] The three defendants, who were said to be known to interact, were housed on the second floor, two below Bevan.
Prosecutor Jason Pitter KC said in the days before Bevan’s death, there was “increased interaction between the defendants,” which Mr Pitter said “was in preparation and anticipation of what they were to do,” reported YorkshireLive.
Following the alleged attack, it was said Taylor had made comments in front of staff members at the prison, including one where he was heard to shout by a nurse in the vicinity of Mr Newell, ‘Nice working with you and the iceman.’
The prosecutor added that Taylor went on to say he witnessed an incident where a prisoner was “put to bed”.
In his closing speech to jurors on Wednesday, Mr Pitter said the defendant’s previous convictions for murder “show each has a tendency to commit this sort of offence.” He said: “You must not convict a defendant just because he has offended before, but you can use the evidence to support the prosecution’s case if you think it is right to do so.”
Speaking of a comment made by Taylor in which he said, “Nice doing business with you,” Mr Pitter said: “David Taylor couldn’t have been more proud of the work or the business they had done together. Those words were uttered by him in the small segregation area that the three of them had been housed in after the killing of Kyle Bevan before they were shipped off together away from Wakefield…
“You may conclude that to them, it was a successful bit of business. ‘Business’ was, in so many words, an appropriate word for him to represent their joint enterprise together. Business, in a way you may feel, was a carefully coordinated venture.
“It was carried out with real efficiency by people who knew what they were doing. There were 25 stab wounds, two of which in particular to either side of the neck, cutting major arteries and veins. They punctured his heart in the process and then tidily tucked him up in bed covered in blood and bleeding out on his mattress, looking like, in all intents and purposes, as if he was asleep and nothing had happened. He had, you may feel, been executed and taken out.”
Mr Pitter said the attack took less than five minutes. He added: “Four minutes and 39 seconds when they were all in that tiny cell together. Four minutes and 39 seconds from when they had all entered together to when they left together in celebration. They are the ones, those three defendants, who know what happened and what they did in that cell.”
The court heard that none of the three defendants took the opportunity to give evidence from the witness stand. Mr Pitter said: “They have not taken that relatively short walk to the witness box, as others have, to explain why they are innocent, and we say that is because they can’t. Not in a sensible way.”
It was said Taylor had also claimed he would be “not guilty all the way,” which the prosecution said the defendants are entitled to claim. Mr Pitter added: “They are entitled to say simply to you: ‘The Prosecution must prove their case.’
“We have no problem with that. No problem with being required to prove the case, that is their right and is what the prosecution have to do in every criminal case. It does, of course, mean there is no evidence to contradict the prosecution’s case. There is nothing to contradict what we say the obvious and proper common sense inferences that can properly be drawn from the evidence in this case.
“Let’s begin with the attitudes. While it may have been the case that there was a hostility at HMP Wakefield against people who had committed offences against children and the regime, it was one that the three of them shared. Such that we know two of them, Fellows and Newell, had expressed a desire to move away. While it may be that on a human level, we can have some understanding or sympathy for that desire not to be at HMP Wakefield, in simply terms they don’t have a right to say how the regime is operated and they must be subjected to that regime.
“The offences each of them had committed, including Kyle Bevan, meant they were subject to the regime and the law and they are the rules that had to be followed.”
The trial continues
