• Stuart Wareham, Lee Wareham and Benjamin Walter carried out the murder
  
• Were filmed carrying off the body in a suitcase to a shallow grave
  
• They bludgeoned Geoffrey Reed before burying him in a shallow grave
  
• When they were arrested the trio lied to police claiming he had gone away
  
• Judge said no one has the right to take the law into their own hands
  

By Jaymi Mccann

PUBLISHED: 13:50 EST, 3 April 2013 | UPDATED: 09:10 EST, 4 April 2013

This is the chilling picture that shows a murderer carrying a dead body in a suitcase.

Victim Geoffrey Reed was a paedophile who was beaten to death by Stuart Wareham, 26, Benjamin Walter, 22, and Lee Wareham, 33, on June 7 last year.

The men were sentenced at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday morning after being found guilty of murder on Wednesday.

Stuart Wareham, half-brother Lee Wareham, and Walter were convicted of killing the sex attacker in his flat in Boscombe, Dorset.

They then stuffed his body into a suitcase and buried it in a shallow grave in the woods.

The trio killed Reed, 57, after discovering that he was a convicted sex attacker and had spent a decade in prison for raping a vulnerable adult and a child.

They carried out a brutal attack on the paedophile by stamping and jumping on him causing multiple blunt force injuries to his head, neck and chest.

Reed’s body was discovered doubled up in a foetal position in the suitcase hidden on land in Lytchett Matravers, near Poole, six days later.

Specially trained police dogs from South Wales Police identified a potential burial site late on June 12 and Mr Reed’s body was excavated the following day.

He was found with a plastic bag over his head and a ligature around his neck.

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He had 28 rib fractures, a skull fracture, two fractures of the breast bone and a broken neck.

Stuart Wareham, 26, was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in jail before being eligible for parole at Winchester Crown Court today.

Lee Wareham, 33, and Benjamin Walter, 22, were both sentenced to a minimum of 18 years before being eligible for parole.

The court heard that Stuart Wareham had admitted grabbing flatmate Reed around the throat and punching him once after he threatened to force himself on his sister.

But he insisted he did not kill him.

Stuart Wareham wrote many letters in prison to friends and family as well as his co-defendants Lee and Benjamin. 

Stuart and Benjamin referred to themselves as characters from the Harry Potter series and said Reed was 'Voldemort', Potters arch-nemesis, because he is “evil, twisted, and ruins people’s lives.

Reed was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2002 for four counts of rape and was released in November 2011 after being recalled for breaching the terms of his licence.

The paedophile had also been convicted for other historical sex crimes.

He attacked a 16-year-old girl in his car in Bournemouth in 1997, which he was jailed for six months for.

In March 1998 Reed, then aged 43, was hauled before magistrates for failing to register as a sex offender.

In 1999 and 2001 he was convicted of similar offences.

The jury delivered their verdict on Reed’s murderers at Winchester Crown Court after just over five hours of deliberations.

There was no reaction from the dock as the verdicts were delivered.

The court heard Reed was a vulnerable and frail man at the time of his death, weighing just eight stone.

Addressing the jury, Justice Griffith Williams said: 'All human life has value and Geoffrey Reed is entitled to the same justice as victims whose reputations are exemplary.'

Speaking outside court, DI Stewart Balmer, of Dorset Police’s Mayor Crime Investigation Team, said: 'As the judge rightly pointed out, nobody is entitled to take the law into their own hands and everyone has a right to life.

'Mr Reed may have had a chequered past, but regardless of this nobody deserves to die in such a violent manner.

'This was a callous crime committed by three men who did their best to cover up their actions.

'The successful conclusion of this case is down to the timely and brave disclosures made by witnesses to the police which led to the early arrests and an opportunity for the officers to act and gather the evidence available.

'Without the support of these witnesses there could have been a very different outcome and, as was the defendants’ plan, people may have genuinely believed Geoffrey Reed was missing of his own accord.

'This was a complex and challenging investigation and I would like to thank all of those involved in the investigation, in particular Detective Sergeant Trevor Hawkins who has been with the case from the outset.'