Four people have been accused and are facing a jury in a Newcastle Crown Court of befriending a vulnerable man, only to excessively torture and murder him.
The group, Kay Rayworth, 56, Myra Wood, 50, Zahid Zaman, 43, and Ann Corbett, 26, were accused of having a cultish-like relationship and befriending 45-year-old Jimmy Prout. They’re accused of throwing Prout’s body into a wasteland.
Rayworth, Wood, Zaman and Corbett deny killing Prout or allowing the death of the vulnerable death to take place. According to prosecutors, the group hit Prout with a hammer, knocking out some of his teeth.
Lead Prosecutor Paul Greaney said Jimmy Prout was tortured, with either direct or indirect infliction to the deceased. Greaney said their conduct was to cause Prout’s death. He said the victim’s scrotum had been cut open and a testicle removed. Greaney said the four defendants forced him to consume his own testicle.
Greaney said the evidence points to Prout dying Feb. 9, 2016, and his body dumped into a wasteland. There, stray animals tore at his flesh, and his body began to decompose.
Zaman allegedly reached out to police, telling them that Corbett was responsible for Prout’s death. After which, Zaman, Wood and Rayworth all told police they held a written confession from Corbett about Prout.
The trouble began when Zaman accused Prout of theft.
Greaney said the group thought Prout deserved to be punished and gave him one that was especially brutal. He said Prout was constantly assaulted and tortured with appalling indignities.
The prosecutor said the court doesn’t understand why the defendants have denied their part in the murder. Greaney said they do agree that Prout had been assaulted, but each party wants to deny their involvement in the murder. Instead, he said, they want to blame one another. Greaney said they were all in it.