A man killed a 20-year-old and dumped his body parts in a park after dismembering him, a court has heard.
Dajour Jones, 27, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering Jamie Gilbey, whose remains were found in undergrowth off Cantley Gardens in South Norwood Lake and Grounds after he was last seen on January 27 2022.
Prosecuting, Simon Denison KC said Jones had carried out a “sustained, vicious murder on a defenceless Jamie Gilbey”, adding that the case was “deeply disturbing”.
He said Mr Gilbey was last seen alive going into Jones’s room at the Fitze Millennium Centre, a housing facility for homeless people where they both lived, on the evening of January 27 2022.
The prosecution said blunt force injuries to Mr Gilbey’s head and body were indicative of a sustained attack with two implements.
Jones denies murder and said he was acting in self-defence after Mr Gilbey confronted him with a knife and stole his phone.
It really is a murder in cold blood
His defence argued Jones did not dismember Mr Gilbey’s body, but took it away from the hostel in one trip and handed it to others to dispose of.
The prosecution said Jones acquired a large suitcase on January 28 that he took back to his room and made three trips with over the next few days.
Mr Denison told jurors: “The act of dismembering Jamie’s body was gruesome and would have required a great deal of force.
“He took very great care to use bedding and other items to absorb the blood and to use gloves to avoid the blood from getting underneath his fingernails.”
Mr Denison said Jones had “calmly disposed of the body in the suitcase that he acquired for that purpose” and carried out a “remarkably thorough” clean up operation in his room.
The prosecutor added: “It really is a murder in cold blood.”
In the days after the murder, Jones was “extraordinarily relaxed and cheerful”, the court heard.
Jones kept the body parts in a crate and disposed of them in two trips to Cantley Gardens, taking the head, body and arms in one trip, and the legs in the other, jurors heard.
The prosecution said Jones disposed of clothing and bedding “heavily stained with blood” in a suitcase at Love Lane Green, South Norwood.
Mr Gilbey’s body was found by police in undergrowth on March 8 2022.
Mr Denison said Mr Gilbey was a “very vulnerable, physically unimposing 20-year-old man who above all wanted to have friends”, adding that he was “too trusting, too eager to please”.
He said Jones was a man who had a “history of violent offending and causing serious injury to others”.
The prosecutor said Mr Gilbey was an “innocent victim of a highly dangerous man”, adding he was “incapable of presenting any physical threat to the defendant let alone taking out a knife and threatening to stab him with it”.
The trial continues.
