Mark Fellows, Lee Newell and David Taylor were found guilty of the murder of Kyle Bevan, who was stabbed 25 times in his cell at HMP Wakefield and left ‘tucked up in bed’
Three inmates have been convicted of murdering a child killer who was knifed to death in his cell and left “tidily tucked up in bed”. Kyle Bevan was stabbed 25 times during an assault by convicted murderers Mark Fellows, Lee Newell and David Taylor at the high-security HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire.
Bevan, 33, was serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 28 years for killing his partner’s two year old daughter, Lola James, in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in 2020.
The three defendants were captured on CCTV trailing Bevan into his cell after 5.30pm on November 4 and exiting less than five minutes later in “a satisfied, job-done mood”, prosecutors said.
He was “put to bed” following the attack and was not discovered until the next morning when prison staff were alerted by a fellow inmate that “something was wrong with Bevan”.
It was determined he had bled to death after sustaining 25 stab wounds inflicted by at least two different weapons.
On Thursday, Fellows, 45, Newell, 57, and Taylor, 64, were found guilty of murdering Bevan after a jury at Leeds Crown Court deliberated for less than three hours.
The trial heard there was “a lot of tension in the prison at the time” and there had been two other serious assaults in the weeks leading up to Bevan’s death – one in which paedophile Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins was stabbed to death and one in which David Minto, who murdered 16-year-old Sasha Marsden in Blackpool in 2013, was seriously injured.
Jurors were told that unlike other prisons, vulnerable inmates were not kept separate from other prisoners at Wakefield, nickmamed “Monster Mansion.”
The system at the time meant “main prisoners” such as Fellows, Newell and Taylor “had to mix with, in a distorted moral hierarchy, other criminals that were beneath them” such as child killers, prosecutors said.
The court was told the three defendants harboured animosity towards people who had committed crimes against children and Fellows and Newell had voiced a wish to be moved away from Wakefield.
In his closing address during the trial, prosecutor Jason Pitter KC said Newell, who is serving a whole life order, had previously throttled a prisoner who murdered a child and left him in his bed, telling jurors there was “a chilling similarity to that and the circumstances of Kyle Bevan’s death”.
Fellows, dubbed “the Wakefield Dexter”, had previously carried out two murders “to take out people he was opposed to or did not like”, and had formally requested to move from Wakefield not long before Bevan’s killing because of his dissatisfaction with the regime there.
Taylor had recently been moved to Wakefield in connection with the murder of an associate, to which he pleaded guilty, and the attempted murder of a police officer while he was in custody. The court heard Taylor bragged about his knack for crafting makeshift weapons “out of all sorts” and after Bevan’s death, some were discovered in a bottle of chilli sauce in his cell, although they couldn’t be linked to the fatal attack.
Bevan was described as someone who “kept himself to himself”, often choosing to stay in his cell and frequently requesting to be locked inside, the jury heard.
On the day he died, CCTV footage showed him walking to his cell, closely followed by the three defendants who were mere seconds behind.
Taylor was seen removing something from his waistband as he entered.
In her summary of the case to the jury, Mrs Justice McGowan stated: “We do not know who did what in the cell.
“At least one person must have inflicted the fatal injuries. At least two weapons were used… it seems likely (Bevan) was held by his arms.
“He was stabbed to either side of his neck and repeatedly to the front of his body.”
She instructed the jury: “You have to be sure that (all three defendants) had at least been part of the group, even if it was only helping or encouraging in some way, even if it is only by blocking the door or acting as a lookout.”
The court was told that the three defendants exited the cell less than five minutes later “as if nothing had happened”.
They were seen shaking hands and seemingly congratulating each other.
Newell had sustained an injury to his hand while Fellows was spotted rolling up his tracksuit bottoms upon realising they were blood-stained, and later discarded them.
Jurors were told one weapon, fashioned from a folded piece of metal from the rear of a television, was hurled from Bevan’s cell and discovered on the ground outside. It bore Bevan’s blood.
The weapon that inflicted the fatal wounds has never been recovered.
The court was told that, as Taylor was being moved out of Wakefield, he was overheard shouting near Newell: “Nice working with you and the Iceman” – a nickname for Fellows.
None of the accused responded to questions during their police interviews, or provided testimony throughout the trial.
Before directing the jurors to deliberate on the verdicts, Mrs Justice McGowan said: “This case is about the death of Kyle Bevan.
“It is not about whether mixing vulnerable prisoners and main prisoners is a good way to run a prison.
“It is not about whether these defendants or anyone else has a view about how people who commit offences against children should be punished.
“Nobody has a right to kill anyone else because they disapprove of what they have done, or because they hate them.
“It’s a fairly basic premise in a civilised society.”
The three defendants will be sentenced on Friday.