James Desborough guilty of Cornwall murders, prison killing

Two homeless men who had nothing left to lose still had one thing they trusted, and that was the friendship of the man who killed them. James Desborough took Claudio Aquilino and Daniel Coleman into his confidence, murdered them near his remote cabin in Sticker, then dismembered their bodies and tried to burn and bury the remains in the woods around his home. Months later, while on remand for one of those killings, he strangled his prison cellmate for snoring.

A jury at Winchester Crown Court took just three hours to find James Desborough, 40, guilty of the murders of Daniel Coleman, 43, and Claudio Aquilino, 57, following a six-week trial. The verdicts were returned on Tuesday 28 July. He had already admitted preventing the lawful burial of both men, and he is due to be sentenced at Winchester Crown Court at 2pm on Wednesday 29 July.

He was convicted of a third murder, that of his cellmate Steven Kempster, at a separate trial at Exeter Crown Court in March.

Both Daniel and Claudio were homeless and had trusted James as a friend. After they disappeared he accessed their bank accounts, spent their money, and set about covering his tracks. Specialist teams and forensic scientists then spent five months searching the woodland around his cabin to recover what was left of both men.

Detective Superintendent Rachael Bentley, head of Devon and Cornwall Police’s Major Crime Investigation Team, said the murders were “callous and cold-blooded”.

“Both men were vulnerable and trusted James Desborough as their friend,” she said. “Desborough not only brutally murdered both men, but then savagely desecrated their bodies, seeking to hide the evidence of his crimes. In doing so, he denied both men of dignity and their families of the opportunity to say goodbye.

“Desborough then set about spending their money and also sought to lay a false trail for detectives to follow in trying to convince people they were still alive.”

Rachael paid tribute to the two families, “who have conducted themselves with a quiet dignity throughout this investigation and who have had to listen to, and see, some harrowing evidence”. She described a “challenging and complex investigation, which required painstaking detective work and extremely detailed forensic examination in a challenging physical environment”.

The trail began on 17 June 2025, when Daniel Coleman was reported missing and enquiries led officers to James’s woodland home. Detectives found he had been using Daniel’s bank card, and he was arrested first on suspicion of fraud and then of murder. Daniel’s phone turned up under his mattress. His bank card and watch were in a metal tin under the cabin’s decking, and that same tin held Claudio Aquilino’s SIM card and gym membership card, which prompted a second missing person enquiry. Claudio’s bank card was later found in the roof space of the shack.

Within days a shallow grave containing human remains, later confirmed to be Daniel’s, was found at the site. Remains identified as Claudio’s were recovered from a nearby stream. Searchers also uncovered notes and drawings by James in which he listed “hostiles”, wrote “I know I’m a killer”, and marked a “kill-zone” on a scribbled map. He told a forensic biologist working in the woods that he particularly enjoyed the dismemberment scenes in the television series Dexter.

James denied both murders, claiming he had found both men dead in the woods and felt pressured into disposing of their bodies. Forensic scientists would go on to recover more than 1,900 burnt bone fragments from the stream. Some could not be identified, though detectives and experts have no reason to believe they belong to anyone other than Claudio.

Claudio Aquilino

Detectives believe Claudio Aquilino was murdered in April 2025. His burnt and fragmented remains were identified in the stream close to the cabin, and forensic experts determined his DNA was on an axe found hanging from a tree near some of the remains.

Claudio was last seen alive leaving a pub in Newquay with James on 18 April 2025, after which his almost-daily contact with his family stopped. The night before, he had called police over concerns James wanted his help with a break-in, describing him as “off his head” and “kamikaze”. The court heard it was “no coincidence” that James’s phone was switched off from 16 to 22 April 2025.

Spending patterns on Claudio’s accounts changed, and money was transferred to James’s own funds on six separate occasions. James was caught on CCTV using Claudio’s cards to withdraw cash. On 24 June 2025 he took a train to London Paddington, spent two and a half hours in the capital, and returned to Cornwall, using Claudio’s card on the way there but not on the way back. The court heard this was an attempt to suggest Claudio was still alive and had left Cornwall.

Claudio’s family said in a statement: “As a family we are completely and utterly mortified in the violent murder of Claudio and the manner in which his body was disposed. Claudio will always be in our thoughts and we now pray he is at peace. We as a family cannot thank Devon and Cornwall Police officers enough for all their support and care throughout this profoundly sad ordeal for the family. Thank you.”

Daniel Coleman

Daniel Coleman was murdered on 3 June 2025 after weeks of escalating anger from James. A note found in the cabin, headed “Hostiles”, listed “Dan” with three crosses beside it.

Daniel was last seen alive that day, after spending it with James in pubs in Falmouth and Truro. James used Daniel’s card to buy a handsaw, a knife, a galvanised bucket, firelighters, and gloves, then tried to burn and bury his remains in a shallow grave. After the killing he texted an acquaintance that “the coast is clear” and there was “no more aggro”.

He also forged a note suggesting Daniel had left the area voluntarily to go walking the Saints Trails, and used Daniel’s email to book a coach from Penzance to Exeter on 27 June 2025 to make it look as though he was alive and had left Cornwall. On 26 June 2025 James was seen on CCTV taking a taxi to buy fuel and a petrol can.

Daniel’s family said in a statement: “We as a family would like to thank the police, prosecution and everyone involved in getting justice for Dan. Dan was a loving, caring and compassionate man who will be forever loved and sadly missed.”

The search of Paramoor Woods

The forensic search of Paramoor Woods in Sticker ran from 30 June to 28 November 2025. Police teams covered 5 square kilometres of woodland and watercourses across 1,136 officer deployments. The 175-day operation added up to a combined 198,800 search hours, of which 96,266 were spent looking for human remains and possible further deposition sites.

That work meant removing leaf litter by hand to spot changes in soil composition and signs of ground disturbance, and carrying out fingertip searches through dense laurel and bogland on hands and knees. The force worked with the National Search Centre, the National Crime Agency, the Environment Agency, the fire service, and archaeological experts.

The operation included what police say was the first documented dammed watercourse diversion and high-assurance fingertip search of a watercourse bed. The stream was diverted so 300 metres of its bed could be sieved systematically, an element that took 104 officers a combined 1,664 hours over six weeks. Gravel and sediment were sieved to a depth of 2mm to pick out even the smallest bone fragments and other evidence.

Steven Kempster

While all of this was still being pieced together, James killed again. In the early hours of 15 September 2025 he attacked his cellmate Steven Kempster, 65, as he slept and, in the words of the court, “squeezed the life out of him”. He then waited hours before raising the alarm, pretending Steven had fallen out of bed and was not breathing.

The night before, James had told fellow prisoners he would kill Steven if his snoring irritated him again. He was at the time held on remand at HMP Exeter, charged with the murder of Daniel Coleman and later charged with the murder of Claudio Aquilino. He and Steven had shared a cell on D-Wing since 12 September 2025.

James was sentenced for Steven’s murder at Exeter Crown Court on 15 June 2026 and jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years. His Honour Judge James Patrick told him: “Simply put, you squeezed the life out of him and left him for dead. It is the inevitable inference from what you had said that you strangled him as he slept. It was some hours before you alerted the authorities to what had happened.”

The judge described Steven as an “older, frailer” man who “tried to keep himself to himself” and who had a health condition that made him snore. “He had the misfortune to be allocated a cell with you, James Desborough,” he said. “You were younger, more confident and stronger. Your cellmate irritated you so much that you asked to be moved. It is likely that would have happened if you had been more patient. As it is, you said that you would kill him if he snored again. Seemingly, he did, and so you did.”

Rachael Bentley said Steven Kempster had been “vulnerable by virtue of his age and health conditions and was murdered, seemingly for snoring”. Taking his life in that way, she said, “was cowardly”.