BEST friends who were “like a married couple” plotted to murder their flatmate after discovering he was a paedophile, a court heard yesterday.

Benjamin Henry Walter, 22, and best friend Stuart Raymond Wareham, 26, as well as Stuart’s half-brother Lee Raymond Wareham, 33, planned to hit Geoffrey Reed, 57, with a rabbit ornament before chopping up his body in the bath, Walter’s twin brother Adam told the court.

The body of Mr Reed, who spent a decade in prison for raping a vulnerable adult and a child, was found in a suitcase buried in a shallow grave on land off Huntick Road in Lytchett Matravers last June.

A video of police interviewing Adam Walter was shown at Winchester Crown Court before he was questioned by barristers.

“My brother started getting very angry,” he said in the video.

“I don’t know why or for what reason. He just said he wanted to kill Geoffrey.”

Adam, who is on the autistic spectrum and has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, told police that the pair planned to hit Mr Reed over the head before cutting up his body.

“It was already planned and they tried getting me involved with it,” he said.

“I thought they were joking because they were laughing.”

A video interview of Tiffany Maidment, who was living with Benjamin Walter and Stuart Wareham at the time of Mr Reed’s death, was shown to the court.

She told police that her boyfriend Daniel Anderson, who had already given evidence, said he thought their housemates had killed Reed.

“He said, ‘I think they have killed Geoff – I heard them talking about a suitcase and a body’”, Ms Maidment said.

The couple then checked their wardrobe and realised their suitcase was missing before barricading the bedroom door with a pushchair and a shelf, she said.

They spent the following night at a friend’s house in Ashley Cross before reporting their concerns to police, the court heard.

Ms Maidment said Stuart Wareham and Benjamin Walter, who is known to his friends and family as Henry, were so close that they even shared a mattress on the floor of the living room of the Cecil Road property in Boscombe.

“They say they’re just friends but they’re like a married couple,” she said.

A third police interview with the Warehams’ sister Kelly was also played.

She said she received a call from Stuart telling her one of his dogs had been hit by a car and he needed to bury it on their grandmother’s land off Huntick Road.

All three defendants deny murdering Mr Reed between June 6 and June 14 last year. The trial continues.