THE murderers of Boscombe man Geoffrey Reed were sentenced to a total of 56 years in prison this morning.

Stuart Wareham, 26, half-brother Lee Wareham, 33, and Benjamin Walter, 22, plotted to murder convicted sex offender Mr Reed, 57, at his home in Cecil Road in June last year.

Jailing the trio to life imprisonment, Mr Justice Griffiths Williams said the men had shown “no remorse” for their actions, which were carried out because they wanted Mr Reed's flat.

He added that Stuart Wareham, who weighed 30 stone at the time of the attack, was “principally responsible”.

“He killed him not because he was a paedophile but with the hope of the opportunity to take over his flat so that he and Henry Walter, with whom he was besotted, could live together,” he said.

“By the Wednesday, everything had been planned. Important text messages prove you had decided Geoffrey Reed had to be quickly disabled and I am satisfied the majority of the injuries inflicted were done after he was unconscious so he was spared most of the physical and mental suffering of what was by any view a prolonged assault.”

He said he dismissed “out of hand” Stuart Wareham's defence that Mr Reed had threatened to rape his sister before the attack and called him “manipulative and controlling”.

“What has emerged clearly is that none of the defendants are in the least bit remorseful for what happened,” he said.

“If any of them still believe Geoffrey Reed deserved to die because he was a paedophile, the sooner they realise there is no justification for their wickedness the better.”

Mr Reed, who weighed just eight stone, was murdered in the kitchen of his flat before his body was stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a shallow grave in woodland. He died as a result of a blunt force trauma, suffering multiple wounds to his head, neck and upper body including a broken neck and 28 rib fractures.

Both Lee Wareham and Walter will serve 18 years before the chance of parole, while Stuart Wareham will serve 20 years. All three men had pleaded not guilty to the murder at Winchester Crown Court.