Serial killer James Desborough has been given a whole life prison sentence with no chance of parole – as police revealed they are looking into four unexplained deaths at the homeless shelter that housed him.
Desborough, already serving a minimum of 19 years for the murder of his prison cellmate, was given the whole life tariff for killing 57-year-old Claudio Aquilino and Daniel Coleman, 43, in Cornwall.
Aquilino and Coleman met Desborough at Newquay’s Sandy Lodge homeless shelter, where police are now reviewing the unexplained deaths of two other men and two women.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Pushpinder Saini described Desborough as “a highly dangerous individual who had no regard for the life of those you think are worthless”.
Desborough befriended the two vulnerable men and used “extreme violence” on both of them, before dismembering and concealing their bodies, the judge said.
He said Desborough used their bank cards and made journeys to give the impression they were still alive
The judge said the offences had an exceptionally high level of seriousness and it was “rare” to impose such a sentence with no chance of parole.
He was also sentenced to five years on each count of preventing lawful burial of Aquilino and Coleman.
Speaking about the review of the four unexplained deaths, Det Supt Rachael Bentley, from Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “As a major crime investigation team we were informed by the coroner’s officer for His Majesty’s Coroner that there were four deaths at Sandy Lodge.
“As part of the investigation, a detective inspector, separate to the investigation but within major crime, did a review of those deaths, and that included commissioning some more forensic work, some CCTV, and statements.”
Inquiries were ongoing and Desborough was “not a suspect at this time”, Bentley said.
