Man, 27, accused of ‘murdering harmless sufferer’, dismembering his physique, then holding his stays in crates earlier than dumping them at a London park throughout a number of journeys, courtroom hears
A man killed a 20-year-old and dumped his body parts in a park after dismembering him, a court has heard.
Dajour Jones, 27, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering Jamie Gibley, whose remains were found in undergrowth off Cantley Gardens in South Norwood Lake and Grounds.
Simon Denison KC, prosecuting, said Jones carried out a ‘sustained, vicious murder on a defenceless Jamie Gibley’, and added that the case was ‘deeply disturbing’.
He told the court Mr Gibley was last seen alive going into Jones’s room at the Fitze Millenium Centre, a housing facility for homeless people where they both lived, on the evening of January 27, 2022.
The prosecution said blunt force injuries to Mr Gibley’s head and body were indicative of a sustained attack with two implements.
Jones denies murder and claimed he was acting in self-defence after Mr Gibley confronted him with a knife and stole his phone.
His defence argued Jones did not dismember Mr Gibley’s body, but took it away from the hostel in one trip and handed it to others to dispose of.
Jones acquired a large suitcase on January 28, that he took back to his room and made three trips with over the next few days, the prosecution said.
Victim Jamie Gibley, 20, was killed and dismembered, his body parts were found in a park in London
Mr Denison told jurors: ‘The act of dismembering Jamie’s body was gruesome and would have required a great deal of force.
‘He took very great care to use bedding and other items to absorb the blood and to use gloves to avoid the blood from getting underneath his fingernails.’
Mr Denison said Jones had ‘calmly disposed of the body in the suitcase that he acquired for that purpose’ and carried out a ‘remarkably thorough’ clean up operation in his room.
The prosecutor added: ‘It really is a murder in cold blood.’
In the days after the murder, Jones was ‘extraordinarily relaxed and cheerful’, the court heard.
Jones kept the body parts in a crate and disposed of them in two trips to Cantley Gardens, taking the head, body and arms in one trip, and the legs in the other.
Jones disposed of clothing and bedding ‘heavily stained with blood’ in a suitcase at Love Lane Green, South Norwood, the prosecution said.
Mr Gilbey’s body was found by police in undergrowth on March 8, 2022.
Jones appeared at The Old Bailey where he denied murdering Jamie Gibley, claiming he acted in self-defence
Mr Denison said Mr Gilbey was a ‘very vulnerable, physically unimposing 20-year-old man who above all wanted to have friends’, adding that he was ‘too trusting, too eager to please’.
He said Jones was a man who had a ‘history of violent offending and causing serious injury to others’.
The prosecutor said Mr Gilbey was an ‘innocent victim of a highly dangerous man’, adding he was ‘incapable of presenting any physical threat to the defendant let alone taking out a knife and threatening to stab him with it’.
The trial continues.
