Fan of TV serial killer Dexter murdered two men before dismembering bodies | UK | News

A fan of TV serial killer Dexter has been found guilty of murdering two homeless men whose bodies were dismembered and hidden in woodland. James Desborough, 40, killed Claudio Aquilino (57) and Daniel Coleman (43) last year, then dismembered their bodies and hid them in Cornwall. The former builder is already serving a life sentence after strangling his prison cellmate Steven Kempster, while he remains in custody at HMP Exeter awaiting this hearing.

The triple killer is now a serial killer and has killed three people in separate incidents over the course of five months. A jury at Winchester Crown Court returned unanimous guilty verdicts on Tuesday after deliberating for three hours and 15 minutes. Desborough showed no emotion as the verdicts were read.

The hearing heard that Mr Aquilino and Mr Coleman had previously lived with Desborough in a homeless hostel and that they were both with him when they were last seen alive.

Following their disappearance, the powerfully built Desborough, who stood 6ft 1in tall and weighed almost 18st, continued to spend his money on drugs and alcohol.

Their bodies were dismembered in the Stick Woods area near St Austell, where Desborough lived in a log cabin. There, police discovered 1,900 burnt bone fragments from Mr. Aquilino’s body had accumulated in a stream.

Parts of Mr. Coleman’s body, including his torso, legs and feet, were found in a shallow grave nearby.

Desborough told a forensic biologist searching the woods for Mr. Coleman’s body that he “particularly enjoyed the dismemberment scenes” in the television series Dexter.

Police found several handwritten notes in Desborough’s cabin; one of them was titled “List of errors” and the other was titled “Enemies”.

Among the notes was one that said, “I know I am a murderer and am ready to execute any predator,” and another that said, “Beware of the remaining puppets,” with Mr. Coleman’s name on it.

Desborough also drew a series of concentric circles with Stick Woods in the middle and London and Benidorm listed at the outer point; this circle is titled: “Kill Zone” and subtitled: “Operational spheres”.

He had also made plans to leave the UK weeks before his arrest.

He denied both murders and told the jury it was “a series of unfortunate circumstances” in which the two men died on their own land within a short period of time.

Desborough killed Mr Aquilino, who had a drug and gambling addiction, shortly after he was last seen alive in April last year.

The defendant claimed that he found Mr. Aquilino, who had a history of suicidal thoughts, hanging on his property in May or early June while he was high on ketamine.

Desborough said his role was to assist Mr. Coleman, who single-handedly dismembered and burned Mr. Aquilino’s body.

He said Mr. Coleman calmed him down and persuaded him to get rid of the body and continue using Mr. Aquilino’s debit card.

“The aim was to cover up the death, to continue using his card. I’m not proud of it, it was like dangling a carrot,” he said.

“I was homeless, unemployed, had no money and no addiction problems.”

He also denied killing Mr Coleman in the early hours of June 4, insisting instead that when he returned to his cabin later that month he found him naked, face down and lying dead in a stream.

Concerned that there was already a body on his land and that he was in possession of Class A drugs, he dismembered Mr Coleman using an ax and buried his remains. He later admitted spending their money on beer and drugs but told jurors: “They were friends, I got on well with them.”

Desborough, of Old Oak Woods, Lower Tag, Cornwall, had previously pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of the bodies of two men.