Prisoners guilty of murder after child killer found 'tucked up in bed' with 25 stab wounds

Three prisoners have been found guilty of murdering a child killer who was stabbed to death in his cell.

Kyle Bevan was stabbed 25 times during an attack in November by convicted killers Mark Fellows, Lee Newell and David Taylor at high-security HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire.

Bevan, 33, was serving a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 28 years for murdering his partner's two-year-old daughter, Lola James, in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in 2020.

The three defendants were seen on CCTV following Bevan into his cell after 5.30pm on 4 November and emerging less than five minutes later in "a satisfied, job-done mood", prosecutors said.

He was "tidily tucked up in bed" after the attack and was not discovered until the following morning when prison staff were tipped off by an inmate that "something was wrong with Bevan".

It was found Bevan had bled to death after suffering 25 stab wounds caused by at least two different weapons.

On Thursday, Fellows, 45, Newell, 57, and Taylor, 64, were found guilty of murdering Bevan after a jury at Leeds Crown Court deliberated for less than three hours.

'A lot of tension in the prison'

The trial heard there was "a lot of tension in the prison at the time" and there had been two other serious attacks in the weeks leading up to Bevan's death - one in which paedophile Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins was stabbed to death and one in which David Minto, who murdered 16-year-old Sasha Marsden in Blackpool in 2013, was seriously injured.

Jurors heard that unlike other jails, vulnerable prisoners were not separated from other inmates at Wakefield.

Prosecutors explained how that meant "main prisoners" like Fellows, Newell and Taylor had to mix with other criminals, such as child killers, "that were beneath them" in a "distorted moral hierarchy".

The court heard the three defendants had a hostility to people who had committed offences against children and Fellows and Newell had expressed a desire to be transferred away from Wakefield.

'A chilling similarity'

Prosecutor Jason Pitter KC said there was a "chilling similarity" between Bevan's death and a previous murder by Newell, who had strangled a prisoner who murdered a child, before leaving him in his bed.

Taylor had recently been transferred to Wakefield in relation to the murder of an associate, to which he pleaded guilty, and the attempted murder of a police officer while he was in custody.

The court heard Taylor boasted about his ability to make makeshift weapons "out of all sorts" and after Bevan's death some were found in a bottle of chilli sauce in his cell, although they could not be matched to the fatal attack.

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Bevan "kept himself to himself" and would mainly stay in his cell, often asking to be locked inside, jurors were told.

Summing up the case to jurors, the judge Mrs Justice McGowan, said: "We do not know who did what in the cell.

"At least one person must have inflicted the fatal injuries. At least two weapons were used...it seems likely he [Bevan] was held by his arms.

"He was stabbed to either side of his neck and repeatedly to the front of his body."

She told jurors: "You have to be sure that [all three defendants] had at least been part of the group, even if it was only helping or encouraging in some way, even if it is only by blocking the door or acting as a lookout."

None of the defendants answered questions in their police interviews, or gave evidence during the trial.

The three defendants will be sentenced on Friday.

(c) Sky News 2026: Prisoners guilty of murder after child killer found 'tucked up in bed' with 25 stab wounds