A man who was a devotee of the TV serial killer drama Dexter has been convicted of murdering two homeless men whose remains were dismembered and concealed in woodland, before he went on to kill his cellmate while awaiting trial.
James Desborough, 40, slaughtered Claudio Aquilino, 57, and Daniel Coleman, 43, before dismembering and disposing of their bodies in Cornwall last year. The former builder is already serving a life sentence after strangling his prison cellmate Steven Kempster at HMP Exeter while on remand awaiting this trial.
Serial Murders Across Five Months
The triple killer has now earned the grim distinction of being a serial murderer, having claimed three lives in separate incidents across a five-month period. A jury at Winchester Crown Court delivered unanimous guilty verdicts on Tuesday (July 28) following three hours and 15 minutes of deliberation.
Desborough betrayed no emotion as the verdicts were announced. During the trial, the court heard that Mr Aquilino and Mr Coleman had previously resided with Desborough at a homeless hostel, and were last seen alive in his company.
Dismemberment in Sticker Woods
Following their disappearances, the powerfully-built Desborough, who stands 5ft 10in tall and weighs nearly 18st, proceeded to squander their money on drugs and alcohol. Their bodies were dismembered in Sticker Woods, near St Austell, where Desborough resided in a wooden cabin. It was there that officers discovered 1,900 burned bone fragments from Mr Aquilino's body, deposited in a nearby stream. Parts of Mr Coleman's body, including his torso, legs and feet, were unearthed in a shallow grave close by.
Desborough informed a forensic biologist searching the woodland for Mr Coleman's remains that he "particularly enjoyed the dismemberment scenes" in the television series Dexter. Officers discovered multiple handwritten notes inside Desborough's cabin, including one titled: "Bug out list" and another: "Hostiles." Amongst the notes was one stating: "I know I am a killer and ready to execute any predators" and another reading: "Take care of the remaining muppets," which also featured Mr Coleman's name.
Kill Zone Plans
Desborough had additionally sketched a series of concentric circles with Sticker Woods at the centre, and London and Benidorm listed at the outermost point, entitled: "Kill Zone", with the sub-heading: "Operational spheres." He had also made arrangements to leave the UK weeks prior to his arrest. The father-of-one denied both murders and informed the jury it was a "series of unfortunate circumstances" the two men died on his land within a brief period.
Desborough killed Mr Aquilino, who struggled with addictions to drugs and gambling, shortly after he was last seen alive in April last year. The defendant maintained he had actually, while under the influence of ketamine, discovered Mr Aquilino, who had a history of suicidal ideation, hanging dead from a tree on his land in May or early June.
Defence and Admission
His involvement, Desborough claimed, was assisting Mr Coleman – who had dismembered and burnt the remains alone – in disposing of Mr Aquilino's body in a stream. He said Mr Coleman calmed him down and convinced him to dispose of the body and continue using Mr Aquilino's bank card. "The idea was to cover up the death, carry on using his card. I'm not proud of it, it was like dangling the carrot," he said. "I was homeless, jobless, I had no money and addiction problems."
He further denied killing Mr Coleman in the early hours of June 4, instead maintaining that he had returned to his cabin later that month to discover him lying naked, face down and dead in a stream. Concerned about already having one dead body on his property and being in possession of Class A drugs, he dismembered Mr Coleman with an axe and buried what remained of him. He accepted then 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 Sticker, Cornwall, had previously entered a guilty plea to preventing the lawful burial of both men's bodies.
