A DRUGS dealer who murdered an addict in Teignmouth with an ornamental fork and dumped his body next to wheelie bins has been jailed for life.
David Ablett attacked Matthew Jackson with the antique carving fork at his bedsit in the resort during an argument about drugs and money in June this year.
He stabbed him repeatedly in the chest with the weapon, leaving six sets of double wounds caused by the two prongs of the fork, which he drove eight centimetres into his body.
Ablett, the son of a former Teignmouth school headteacher, tried to cover his tracks by getting a friend to help him move the body across the road and dump it next to a neighbour’s wheelie bins.
He hid the murder weapon and the victim’s phone and wallet in nearby gardens and later claimed he was acting in self defence.
A judge at Exeter Crown Court branded him a liar who had chosen to dispose of the evidence rather than calling an ambulance to help the dying man.
Judge Peter Johnson also praised the dignity of Mr Jackson’s family who tried to help him overcome his addiction in the years before his death.
The attack happened after 38-year-old Mr Jackson walked three miles from his parents’ home in Bishopsteignton to Ablett’s flat in Barnpark Terrace to buy £30 worth of heroin.
Texts on his phone suggested he may have planned to rob Ablett but the Judge said the attack with the fork went far beyond self-defence.
The attack left Mr Jackson with 56 different injuries, some to his arms as he tried to protect himself, and others to his body when he was being dragged across the street.
The six fatal blows with the fork were all driven hard into his chest and left distinct double wounds where the two prongs entered, some to a depth of eight centimetres.
He died from internal bleeding with injuries to his heart, lungs and liver. Nearly two litres of blood drained into his chest cavity.
Ablett was well known as a drug user and dealer in Teignmouth and Dawlish, where he had previous convictions for thefts, assaults and possessing knives. He was nicknamed Scabby Abby.
Former gamekeeper Ablett, 52, of Barnpark Terrace, Teignmouth, denied murder but was found guilty by the jury at Exeter Crown Court. He admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine.
Neal Hinton, aged 39, of Ness View Road, Teignmouth, who helped him move the body, has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Ablett was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years, less time served on remand, by Judge Johnson.
He told him: ‘Matthew Jackson was much loved, for all his flaws, and there were many who tried to help him turn his life around. The court recognises that no sentence of this court can bring him back.
‘I accept he may have been violent or threatened violence, but not to anything like the level you alleged. You are the only one person knows what happened but you have lied repeatedly.
‘Your response was grossly disproportionate, plunging the fork into him repeatedly. I reject your account that he straddled you and hit you with the fork and a knuckle duster. If that was the case, your injuries would have been far more serious.
‘He was younger, taller and fitter. If he had wanted to kill you, he could have done so. If he said he was going to kill you, it was only after you stabbed him and left him dying.
‘The reason why you did not call the police or an ambulance was because you knew you had murdered him.
‘If you were concerned about him, you would have called an ambulance. Instead, you disposed of his belongings and lied to distance yourself from what you had done.
‘You continue to lie and you have showed no remorse. You had the weapon as part of your unlawful enterprise. It was not a normal domestic item seized in the heat of the moment.’
During the trial Ablett told the jury he acted in self-defence after Mr Jackson attacked him without warning in revenge for refusing to supply heroin ‘on tick.’
He said Mr Jackson had picked up the fork first and he had grabbed it off him and then fallen on the victim repeatedly while holding it to his chest.
The jury rejected his account after hearing how he kept the weapon in his flat for self-protection and had been filmed by a visitor using it like a throwing knife shortly before the killing.
In the clip he could be seen aiming it a dummy’s head until it stuck into the face prong-first.
Mr Paul Dunkels, QC, defending, said Ablett had only sold drugs to feed his own habit. He had not made any money out of it, and there had been an element of excessive self-defence in the killing.
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Steve Davies of the Major Crime Investigation Team, welcomed the sentence imposed on Tuesday.
He said after the hearing: ‘Ablett’s actions of trying to cover up the murder only went to show that this was not the deeds of someone who had innocently acted in self-defence.
‘Throughout this investigation Ablett has tried everything to distance himself as the killer and today a jury has seen through his story of events; to stab someone six times is not reasonable force for self-defence and the jury have agreed with the prosecution on this.
‘My team carried out an extensive investigation gaining evidence from witnesses, CCTV, phone data and forensic specialists.
‘This was the only way of finding out what had happened prior to and on the day of the incident.
‘The first time Ablett gave his version of events was when he spoke in court following all the evidence being presented to him by the prosecution team.’
He added: ‘We welcome today’s sentence, and our thoughts are with the family of Matthew Jackson.’