Convicted killer denies murdering two friends whose remains were found near his Cornwall cabin | UK news
A convicted murderer accused of murdering two friends whose bodies were found burnt and dismembered near his Cornish woodland cottage has insisted he did not kill them but found their bodies on his own land.
James Desborough claimed that he saw one of the bodies hanging from a tree and the other lying naked in the stream.
He told the jury at Winchester crown court that he admitted disposing of her remains during a period when he was heavily influenced by ketamine, speed, cannabis and tequila.
“I had lost all concept of reality,” he said. “I don’t remember what I was thinking. I made some bad decisions.” When asked how two bodies turned up in his woods, he said: “It’s a series of unfortunate circumstances.”
Desborough, 40, denies killing Claudio Aquilino, 57, and Daniel Coleman, 43, but admits hiding their bodies in dense bush near his cottage near St Austell.
He also admitted in court to killing a cellmate in prison in Devon while awaiting trial for two alleged murders. The defendant denied the claim that he killed his cellmate because he snored, but did not say why he did it.
Desborough, who described himself as an unemployed civil engineer, said he, Aquilino and Coleman lived for a time in a boarding house in the Cornish resort of Newquay. He described himself as homeless, without money, and with addiction issues.
The defendant said that after leaving Newquay, he and Aquilino went to live in the woodland cabin in the early summer of 2025. He said Aquilino was paranoid and thought people were trying to kill him.
Desborough told the jury he came out of his cabin one day to find Aquilino hanging from a tree. “I started to get shocked and panic,” he said, adding that he threw the body into the stream on his land.
Desborough said Coleman was also paranoid and got into fights. He said he came across Coleman’s naked body in the stream later in the summer. Desborough said he had no idea how Coleman died but that he cut his body open with an axe. He said he felt “numb” at this point.
The defendant was asked about the prosecution’s claim that he told a forensic biologist working in the forest that he liked the dismemberment scenes in the serial killer TV series Dexter. Desborough said he only mentioned the show because he saw it advertised on the bus.
The defendant admitted that he received Aquilino and Coleman’s money after their deaths. He told the jury he probably spent the money on “beer and drugs”.
Prosecutor Ahmed Hossain KC told Desborough he had been involved in the deaths of three people in the space of a few months and asked him if he got a thrill out of killing.
Desborough repeated that he did not kill his two friends and that the killing of his cellmate was “out of character.”
When asked about a note police found that read “I am a murderer and am willing to execute any predator,” Desborough said it was a “creative piece of writing” and was about a character, not himself.
The trial continues.
