Man who chopped up ‘vulnerable’ younger friend and hid his body in park is jailed

A man who murdered his ‘vulnerable’ younger friend, dismembered his body and scattered parts around a park has been jailed for life.

Jamie Gilbey, 20, was ‘in the prime of his life and had his entire life ahead of him’, the judge said. But Dajour Jones, 27, ‘took that away’.

The pair had become friends while living at a homeless hostel Upper Norwood, which staff described as unexpected.

Mr Gilbey, who had learning difficulties, ‘loved playing jokes on people’ and was ‘always happy, laughing and joking’, his mother Charlene Baxter told the court.

But he was also a ‘very vulnerable, physically unimposing 20-year-old man who above all wanted to have friends’, prosecutor Simon Denison KC told the jury.

Mr Jones, meanwhile, had a history of violence. At the time, he was on licence for attacking a man with a broken glass bottle at a London Bridge cycle shop.

On the evening of January 27, 2022, Mr Gilbey entered Mr Jones’ hostel room. That would be that last time he was seen alive.

‘The defendant murdered him there in a brutal, sustained, and particularly disturbing attack’, Mr Denison told the court.

‘The defendant inflicted the severe head injuries when Jamie was alive. He inflicted stab wounds when he was alive, but not wearing his clothing, and he inflicted stab wounds when Jamie was dead and not wearing his clothing.’

Mr Jones cut up his body, then bought a large, purple suitcase with which he ‘calmly disposed of the body’, which he kept in a crate in his room.

In two trip, he smuggled Mr Gilbey’s remains out of the hostel to Cantley Gardens, in South Norwood Lake and Grounds – first the head, torso and arms, and then the legs.

He then packed the suitcase with heavily blood-stained clothes and bedding, and dumped it at Love Lane Green.

Mr Jones, seeming ‘extraordinarily relaxed and cheerful’, proceeded to clean his room, where police later recovered multiple bottles of bleach and cleaning fluids.

Some of them were hidden behind a sink, along with three anti-perspirant sprays.

Police arrested Mr Jones on March 3, 2022, after scouring CCTV at the hostel, where staff had reported Mr Gilbey missing on January 30.

It was another five days before his body was recovered from thick undergrowth. Upon being charged, Mr Jones responded: ‘Alright. Cool.’

Mr Jones, of no fixed address, was found guilty of murder on December 5, and was today sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 27 years.

In his sentencing remarks, the judge described him as ‘a violent and dangerous individual’ who may have enjoyed inflicting ‘gratuitous and unnecessary’ wounds after Mr Gilbey was dead.

Mr Gilbey’s mother said her younger children now ‘keep asking if the bad man is coming to get them’.

Speaking of her eldest son, she said: ‘We were estranged for four years before Jamie’s death and the defendant has taken away my opportunity to reunite with him, to rekindle that relationship.’

She added: ‘The court process has left me physically, mentally and emotionally drained.

‘To lose my son in such a tragic way is something I will never come to terms with, the world still turns but inside my soul feels hollow and baron.

‘The continued delays and disruptions to the court case have prolonged my trauma. I haven’t been able to get any closure having to watch the defendant continue to disrupt the court proceedings without any regard for the pain my family and I are going through has been extremely frustrating.’

Speaking after sentencing, Catherine Gould, of the Crown Prosecution Service, welcomed ‘justice for this barbaric crime’.

She said: ‘Jamie Gilbey was a vulnerable, unimposing and defenceless young man who suffered a sustained and disturbing attack at the hands of Dajour Jones.

‘Jones said that he had acted in self-defence, claiming that he hit Mr. Gilbey with a broom after the victim had confronted him with a knife and stole his phone – but the reality was that Mr. Gilbey was the innocent victim of a very dangerous man who had planned to kill him for reasons only he knew.’

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