THREE men have been found guilty of murdering paedophile Geoffrey Reed and burying his body in a suitcase.

Stuart Wareham, 26, half-brother Lee Wareham, 33, and Benjamin Walter, 22, were today convicted of killing the sex attacker in his Boscombe flat, stuffing his body into a suitcase and burying it in a shallow grave in the woods.

The jury delivered their verdict at Winchester Crown Court after just five hours of deliberations.

They will be sentenced tomorrow morning.

The trio killed Mr 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 ferocious attack on Mr Reed, by stamping or jumping on him causing multiple blunt force injuries to the head, neck and chest. Mr Reed’s body was discovered doubled up in a foetal position in a suitcase hidden on land off Huntick Road, Lytchett Matravers, near Poole.

He was found with a plastic bag over his head and a ligature around his neck. He had 28 rib fractures, a skull fracture, two fractures of the breast bone and a broken neck.

Speaking after the case, 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 that Geoffrey Reed was missing on his own accord.

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

Simon Jones, Senior Crown Advocate for CPS Wessex said: “This was a sad case that led to the murder of a vulnerable and frail man.”

“Geoffrey Reed weighed just eight stones and was in ill heath when he was murdered in the middle of the day on Thursday 7th June 2012 in his own home. His body was then taken approximately 13 miles, in a suitcase, to a shallow grave in the woods at Lytchett Matravers, west of Poole.

“Mr Reed originally met Stuart Wareham at St Paul’s Direct Access Hostel after his release from prison. He was the tenant of a one bedroom flat and on occasions he let Stuart Wareham and Benjamin Walter stay there. By the time of the murder they had virtually moved in. Lee Wareham is the half brother of Stuart and visited the flat a few times.

“In March last year, Stuart Wareham found out why Mr Reed had been in prison and he assaulted him. On the day of his death, Benjamin Walter took him to the Nationwide Building Society to withdraw money out of his account. When they returned to the flat it was the last time Mr Reed was seen alive. While it is true that Mr Reed was a convicted sex offender this cannot justify the brutal attack on him and from which he died.

“There was an immediate cover up to the murder.  Benjamin Walter put Mr Reed’s jacket on and left the flat.  This was to make it look as if he had left to go to Weymouth; a lie that was told to the police when the body had not yet been discovered.  Lee Wareham later discarded the jacket in a near by shed.  Stuart Wareham and Benjamin Walter also put his body into a suitcase.  It was initially claimed that it was a dead dog which they wanted to bury at Wareham’s grandmother’s property at Lytchett Matravers. The men borrowed spades and a fork and made their way into woods nearby where they dug a shallow grave and put the suitcase with the body in it."