Couple who 'beat, belittled and starved' a vulnerable man to death after he was sent to live with them by social services found guilty of murder

By ANDY DOLAN, GENERAL REPORTER Published: 11:45, 30 July 2026 | Updated: 11:47, 30 July 2026 A couple who beat and starved a vulnerable man to death after he was sent to live with them by social workers were convicted of murder today. Jurors heard 'recovering drug addicts' Melanie James, 63, and her partner Kenneth Newton, 57, kept Rubin Blount in their council house 'for their own financial benefit' and abused him 'for their own fun and kicks'. The 28-year-old resembled a 'bag of bones’ in the days before he died and had been seen scavenging in bins. By the end he weighed just seven stones and had suffered multiple rib fractures, a fractured spine and cigarette burns. A court heard the couple forced him to stand and filmed themselves mocking and threatening him. Jurors at Stafford Crown Court took nine-and-a-half hours to convict the pair after a trial spanning seven weeks. Mrs Justice Jefford told them they would be sentenced on September 25.  Prosecutor Jennifer Josephs KC told the court Newton was a ‘sort of step-brother’ to Mr Blount, having been brought up by the victim’s father. Both defendants had known Mr Blount, who had a low IQ and learning difficulties, since he was born. During the trial, jurors were played a series of audio and video clips of Mr Blount recorded on a phone. Rubin Blount resembled a 'bag of bones' in the days leading up to his death, his father said Police at the scene following Mr Blount's death in Stoneydelph, Tamworth, in 2022 In video footage from November 2 2022, three weeks before his death at the defendants’ home in Tamworth, Staffordshire, Newton filmed Mr Blount as he stood in the doorway to their bedroom. He appeared painfully thin and pale and remained impassive as he is branded a “nonce” and “f****** spastic”. At one point James said: “He looks like a cross between Pinocchio and f****** Worzel Gummidge”. She told her partner: “Keep the camera rolling - I might send this to You’ve Been Framed.” Miss Joesphs said Newton and James, of Handsworth, Birmingham, “treated their dog with more kindness and care” than the man they were supposed to be caring for. “He was someone to be belittled, mocked, assaulted and kept for their own financial benefit’, she said. “Rubin had been battered, assaulted, his ribs fractured, he had cigarette burns and injuries. “They treated him in a degrading and humiliating manner, even as he faded before their very eyes through an absence of food and care and through injury and illness. “They didn’t just neglect and mistreat him. The crown’s case is that they viciously assaulted him.’ The court was told Mr Blount spent the first 20 years of his life living with his parents Eric and Jeanette Blount. But Miss Josephs said in 2015 “following some concerns, the authorities decided that it wasn’t appropriate for him to live at home any more”. She added: “It was agreed with all including social services that he would move in with the defendants. “Although they are not blood relatives of the deceased, they were like family.’ The court heard the extent of the victim’s suffering became apparent when James turned up at Mr and Mrs Blount's home out of the blue on November 26, 2022, and told Jeanette her son was not well. The couple went to see him and were so shocked by what they saw, they drove him to hospital, jurors were told. Giving evidence behind a screen, Mr Blount told jurors: 'I went upstairs into the back bedroom where Rubin was lying on the bed. 'He was lying on his side. He didn't speak. He was unconscious. He looked like a bag of bones. 'When I touched his clothes they were soaked in urine and so was the bed, and there was a pile of urine-soaked clothes on the floor. 'I picked him up, carried him down the stairs and we drove him to Good Hope Hospital.' Mr Blount said Newton remained in his bedroom 'crying his eyes out, saying 'we're going to get the blame for this'.' He added: 'I believe they wanted him round at theirs for the money. 'Rubin was always thin, but not like he was that day.’ Mr Blount, who had a BMI of 16, suffered a cardiac arrest in the accident and emergency department of the hospital in Sutton Coldfield, where medics discovered he was suffering from pneumonia and had multiple rib fractures, kidney and liver dysfunction and heart damage. He died four days later, with the cause of death recorded as septic shock, due to pneumonia and damage to the lung.