Jack Hindley and Samuel Jones sentenced to 18 years in jail for murdering Walkford man Edward Reeve

TWO teenage boys who stabbed a Walkford man to death in an eight-minute attack have been jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 18 years.

Killers Jack James Hindley and Samuel Roy Jones can be named for the first time after reporting restrictions, due to being minors, were lifted by a judge at Winchester Crown Court

They were just 16 when they murdered Edward Reeve (35) at his home in Heath Road on New Year’s Eve last year

Today Mr Justice Sweeney told the defendants, now 17, that they had been convicted on “overwhelming evidence” of the murder of a “vulnerable” man who had “done nothing to justify what happened to him”.

The judge said the pair had left him to bleed to death, adding: “The mental and physical suffering that was inflicted must have been excruciating for him.”

Hindley, from Christchurch, and Jones, from Bournemouth, showed no emotion as the judge told them he was raising the starting point of their sentences from 17 to 18 years, partly because of the horrific nature of the crime.

They had denied the killing but a jury found them guilty at their trial in July.

Mr Reeve was a schizophrenic whom the judge said had mental health problems which had led to him using drinks and drugs.

Hindley had gone to his house two days before to deal drugs and, said the judge, shown his “contempt” for him by stealing a computer.

On their second visit they were accompanied by three girls, aged 15 and 16, who left before the attack.

The duo had taken knives with them which the judge said they intended to “cause grievous bodily harm with, at least”.

As he desperately tried to defend himself Mr Reeve suffered eight stab wounds, four slashes and five punctures to his body.

One stab wound to his stomach was so severe his intestines were exposed.

Mr Justice Sweeney said the victim “made desperate attempts” to get away from the defendants, including running out into his garden.

He said the two teens had “done nothing at all to help him”, adding that within an hour Mr Reeve had bled to death in “pain and in anguish”.

As he lay dying, Hindley and Jones were seen on CCTV outside Walkford Stores “fist bumping, laughing and very excitedly bragging about what they had done”.

The judge said that despite the pair writing letters to the court expressing their “belated” remorse, he pointed out that had they been 17 at the time of the attack, they would have been facing a sentence of 23 years.

Aggravating factors leading to the 18-year sentence were that Mr Reeve was “particularly vulnerable”, the killing happened in his own home, and the nature of the suffering he had endured.

During the trial, Hindley and Jones had blamed each other for the murder.

Jones, who was on bail at the time of the killing, claimed Hindley had launched an “aggressive” attack on Mr Reeve, stabbing him to death as he watched “in shock”.

Hindley admitted that he had inflicted four stab wounds on Mr Reeve in self-defence after the victim threatened him, but he said Jones had then murdered him using a knife.

Speaking after the case, DCI Simon Huxter from Dorset Police said he hoped the case “demonstrates the devastating consequences of teenage boys carrying knives on the streets of Dorset”.

He appealed to anyone who knows or suspects someone to be carrying a knife to report it to police and help to prevent a further tragedy.