Child killer Kyle Bevan was left 'tidily tucked up in bed' after being stabbed 25 times in prison cell by 'three inmates who knew what they were doing', court hears

Published: 15:50, 17 June 2026 | Updated: 15:50, 17 June 2026 The child killer Kyle Bevan was left 'tidily tucked up in bed' after three inmates allegedly stabbed him 25 times in his prison cell, a court has heard. Bevan, 33, was serving a life sentence for murdering his step-child in 2020 when he was killed on November 4 2025. His body was not discovered until the following morning when it was found he had bled to death after suffering 25 stab wounds.   Three of his fellow inmates - Mark Fellows, 45, Lee Newell, 57, and 64-year-old David Taylor - have appeared at Leeds Crown Court accused of murdering Bevan. Prosecutors say the three defendants were seen on CCTV going into his cell at HMP Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, and emerging less than five minutes later. Bevan was then put in his bed after the attack and left to be discovered the next morning. The three defendants have all chosen not to give evidence in their trial. Giving his closing speech to jurors on Wednesday, prosecutor Jason Pitter KC said: 'None of them has taken the opportunity to explain to you, to the court, to the police at any stage, what happened. We say that's because they can't.' Kyle Bevan (pictured), 33, was serving a life sentence for murdering his step-child in 2020 when he was killed on November 4 2025 Pictured: Mark Fellows one of the men accused of murdering Bevan in HMP Wakefield  Mr Pitter described the killing of Bevan as a 'carefully coordinated venture carried out with real efficiency by people who … knew what they were doing'.  He said the men then left him 'tidily tucked up in bed … as he bled out on his mattress, looking like, for all intents and purposes, as if he was asleep'.  Mr Pitter told jurors the attack took place in 'four minutes and 39 seconds when all three of them were in that tiny cell together'. The prosecutor said that, as Taylor was transferred out of Wakefield, he was heard to shout by a nurse in the vicinity of Newell: 'Nice working with you and the Iceman' – a nickname for Fellows. He told the court those words showed Taylor 'could not have been more proud of the work… they had done together'. The trial heard that, unlike other prisons, vulnerable prisoners were not separated from other inmates at HMP Wakefield. Mr Pitter said the regime meant that the three defendants 'had to mix with, in a distorted moral hierarchy, other criminals that were beneath them'. He said the defendants had a hostility to people who had committed offences against children, and Fellows and Newell had expressed a desire to move away. Pictured: Lee Newell one of the men accused of murdering Bevan  The jury heard details of crimes previously committed by the three men.  Mr Pitter said that Fellows had previously committed two murders 'to take out people he was opposed to or did not like', while Taylor had in the past 'committed serious offences in which he expressed a dislike of paedophiles'. He told the court Taylor went on to murder an associate and invited a police officer to the prison before trying to kill him with an improvised weapon he had hidden in his waistband. While Newell, who is serving a whole life order, had previously strangled a man who murdered a child and left him in his bed, Mr Pitter told jurors there was 'a chilling similarity to that and the circumstances of Kyle Bevan's death'. The prosecutor said all inmates at HMP Wakefield 'had done very unattractive things, offences of the most terrible kind'. 'But you must not simply adopt the approach of 'they are murderers therefore they are guilty' or, for Mr Bevan, 'he's killed a child therefore he deserved it,' Mr Pitter said. 'To do either of these things would be to fail in your duty. 'The moral considerations are dealt with in other places.' He told jurors that their job was 'simply to apply the law and make decisions on the facts'. Joe Stone KC, defending Newell, told jurors that there was no CCTV in the cell, saying: 'The reality is, you don't know 100 per cent what went on in that cell, during that five minutes. 'It's a tricky task for a jury to assess the evidence for these three men when that evidential black hole is staring you in the face. 'Who was the stabber? Were there stabbers in the plural? Was there someone who was merely in there and did nothing?' He said there was 'not a scintilla of evidence' of Newell being armed, or any 'blood evidence' linking him to the attack. Nick Johnson KC, defending Fellows, told jurors: 'In this country you don't just say 'those three bad men going into a cell, they probably did it'…Only you decide where justice lies in this case.' He asked the jury to consider an alternative, that Fellows went to Bevan's cell for another purpose and 'that violence erupted that he played no part in, even if he was happy to cover it up afterwards'. Jeremy Dein KC, defending Taylor, told the court: 'Behind the door of Kyle Bevan's cell, there is not an iota of evidence that David Taylor stabbed Kyle Bevan, and no evidence that his presence can be coupled, so that you are sure with… assistance, encouragement or intent.'  All three defendants deny murder. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.