Labourer guilty of ‘deeply disturbing’ body parts murder

A labourer has been found guilty of killing a “vulnerable” young man whose dismembered body parts were dumped in bin bags in a park.

Dajour Jones, 27, subjected 20-year-old Jamie Gilbey to a “sustained and vicious” attack before cutting up the body and distributing the remains in undergrowth at South Norwood Lake and Grounds in south London.

Jones claimed he had hit the victim with a broom in self-defence after Mr Gilbey confronted him with a knife and stole his phone.

A jury deliberated for more than six hours at the Old Bailey to reject his explanation and find him guilty of murder on Thursday.

Mr Gilbey’s mother and aunt appeared tearful in court, but Jones had refused to attend court by video link from Belmarsh jail.

Jurors had been told it was a “deeply disturbing” case in which the victim was a “defenceless” man.

Mr Gilbey was last seen alive going into Jones’s room at a hostel where they both lived in Upper Norwood on the evening of January 27 2022.

Prosecutor Simon Dennison KC said: “Jamie Gilbey was never seen alive again. He didn’t leave that room alive.

“The defendant murdered him there in a brutal, sustained, and particularly disturbing attack in which he inflicted multiple blunt force injuries to Jamie’s head, and he stabbed him multiple times with a sharp weapon.”

The victim sustained stab wounds to the soles of his feet after he had been killed, jurors heard.

Mr Dennison had told jurors: “On any view, 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.

“I said at the start that there were aspects of this case that were particularly disturbing, and that is why I said that. Only the defendant knows exactly what he did, and why.”

The day after the killing, Jones acquired a large purple suitcase that he took back to his room.

Jones kept the body parts in a crate and disposed of them in two trips to Cantley Gardens with the suitcase, taking the head, torso and arms in one trip, and the legs in the other, jurors heard.

In a third trip, Jones deposited the suitcase containing clothing and heavily blood stained bedding at Love Lane Green, South Norwood.

Having “calmly disposed of the body”, Jones also carried out a “remarkably thorough” clean-up operation in his room and seemed “extra ordinarily relaxed and cheerful”, the court heard.

He was arrested on March 3 2022, five days before Mr Gilbey’s body was found by police in undergrowth.

Mr Dennison said Mr Gilbey was an “innocent victim of a highly dangerous man” and had been “too trusting” and “too eager to please”.

He was a “very vulnerable, physically unimposing 20-year-old man who above all wanted to have friends”, the prosecutor said.

Mr Dennison dismissed the defendant’s claim of self-defence, saying Mr Gilbey was “incapable of presenting any physical threat to the defendant let alone taking out a knife and threatening to stab him with it”.

Mr Gilbey had been on bail for an attempted robbery but otherwise had no convictions, warnings or reprimands, police said.

During his evidence, Jones denied he dismembered Mr Gilbey’s body, claiming he took it away from the hostel in one trip and handed it to three people to dispose of.

He also denied stabbing the victim’s feet after he was already dead, blaming the people who handled the body for the injuries.

Jones had a history of violence and had admitted a glass attack on a member of staff at a cycling shop in London Bridge, the court was told.

He had been released from prison on licence before the murder.

Judge Nigel Lickley KC adjourned sentencing until December 13, saying Jones would be required to attend.