A gang of four tortured and murdered by a gang of four people he considered his friends. A court heard that Jimmy Prout, 45, was subjected to months intense abuse before his body was dumped on wasteland. The five accused, Ann Corbett, 26, Zahid Zaman, 43, Myra Wood, 50, and Kay Rayworth, 56, deny the murder and causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult. They pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Jury at Newcastle Crown Court heard the group of five had a relationship with an almost “cultish dimension”. Following a series of events in late 2015, a handful of serious assaults were carried out against Prout, including knocking his teeth out with a hammer and chisel. Prosecutor Paul Greaney, QC, said, “In effect, over a period of time, Jimmy Prout was not just mistreated, he was tortured. The prosecution case is that the four defendants took part in that violence against Jimmy Prout, either inflicting injuries directly or assisting or encouraging the other members of the group to do so. In the end, this conduct was to cause the death of Jimmy Prout.”
Elaborating the kind of 'dark ages' abused rendered on the victim, Greaney said, “Awfully, on one occasion, Jimmy Prout's scrotum was sliced open and his testicle was removed; he was then forced to eat it.” He said evidence suggested Prout died on February 9, 2016, and his body was dumped on a wasteland 100 metres from his home where it was partially eaten by animals and had begun to decompose. Following that, the accused allegedly began to cover up their tracks, fleecing Prout's bank account all along, and asking people if they have seen him as they pretended to look for him.
The police received a call from one of the accused, Zaman, on March 25, claiming Corbett had attacked him and killed Prout, attempting to “throw her to the wolves”. Officers, on visiting 35 St Stephen's Way, North Tyneside, found Zaman, Rayworth, and Wood who claimed to have written letters from Corbett confessing to the murder. Greaney said it was “pure theatre” as they all knew the victim was dead for over six weeks.
“He was repeatedly assaulted and subjected to dreadful indignities. In fact, we do not understand the defendants to deny that this is so. They accept that Jimmy Prout was assaulted, but each of them wishes to reduce his or her own involvement in events seeking to blame one or more of the others. In truth, they were in it together,” Greaney said.
