Murder trial: Victim Edward Reeve suffered 'brutal and unrelenting attack' at his Walkford home

TWO teens carried out a “brutal and unrelenting attack” on a vulnerable man, stabbing and slashing him 12 times, the jury in a murder trial has heard.

Edward Reeve (35) suffered “horrific” injuries during the assault, which happened on New Year’s Eve at his home on Heath Road in Walkford.

His left thumb had been “cut to the bone” while there was a gaping 7cm slash to his wrist which went to the tendon and bone.

Outlining the case at Winchester Crown Court against the teens, who were just 16 at the time of the incident, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones QC called it a “full on attack” on Mr Reeve, who suffered from schizophrenia.

She told how he was found by friends four days later "covered in blood” with his intestines exposed. He had also been slashed across the face.

Ms Karmy-Jones told the jury that Mr Reeve had met one of the teens, who lived in Christchurch, only two days earlier, introduced as someone who could get him drugs.

On that occasion the youth and other friends were said to have gone to Mr Reeve’s home where they took drugs.

After that, the prosecutor said, Mr Reeve continued to call the youth asking him for more drugs, which she said the defendant had found “annoying”.

On New Year's Eve Mr Reeve had invited the teen over in the hope of obtaining more drugs, the court heard.

The teen asked the other defendant, who is now 17 and comes from Bournemouth, to come with him along with three girls, two of whom were 15.

The jury heard that on the way there they described Mr Reeve as a “weirdo” and told the girls he was a paedophile.

When they got to the house the girls said the victim and two boys were smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol.

One of the girls said the teens were “drunk and looking for violence” and started punching holes in the walls of Mr Reeve's house.

The girls said Mr Reeve had asked “Why are you trashing my house?” The court heard the girls then decided to leave.

Ms Karmy-Jones said it was then that the youths attacked Mr Reeve. She said he was attacked with two knives they had with them, and was stabbed multiple times in the space of “just a few minutes”.

The two youths had later told the girls how Mr Reeve was “trying to crawl out of his home, that he was reaching up to them for help but they had smashed his face”, said the prosecutor.

She told the jury that this statement was made when the two defendants met up with the three girls at the Walkford Stores near to Mr Reeve's home.

The girls described them as being “excited and energetic”, adding that they were “proud and bragging” about “shanking (stabbing) a man”.

"They said the Christchurch youth had stabbed him first in the leg and then the Bournemouth youth had stabbed him in the ribs,” Ms Karmy-Jones told the jury.

She said the defendants then received a call from an inmate at a young offender's institute.

"During the call, the teens both speak, both telling them they've stabbed someone.

"The Christchurch teen says 'brother's yinged someone up, innit'. The Bournemouth teen says 'we just done yinged someone up, crazy bro'."

She said the words used were slang for stabbed. The court heard how the Christchurch defendant later returned to Mr Reeve's house in the following days to see if his body had been found.

It was eventually discovered by two friends of Mr Reeve's who had become concerned about him. They found him covered in blood, with his intestines protruding from a “large wound” in his stomach.

The Christchurch youth has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to possessing a knife. He has admitted stabbing Mr Reeve but says it was in self-defence. The Bournemouth youth has pleaded not guilty to murder and not guilty to carrying a blade.

The trial continues.