A murderer killed and chopped up his own uncle before feeding some body parts to badgers.
Daniel Walsh, 30, murdered his uncle and landlord Graham Snell, 71, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in June 2019, then bought two handsaws which he used to dismember the body.
He went on to bury the parts in woodland and spent money he stole from his victim at a casino, arcades, and a massage parlour.
A jury took just over an hour to unanimously find Walsh guilty of murder last Friday after a near three-week retrial.
Grisly details from the Derby Crown Court trial heard Mr Snell’s death was recorded as unascertained “because there were so many body parts”.
His sentencing was delayed until January 4 after Walsh sensationally sacked his legal team on Monday.
Prosecutor Peter Joyce QC, opening the re-trial last month, said: “The cause of death is unascertained because there were so many body parts but we know what he did.
“He killed him, he chopped him up and fed him to the badgers.
“What you will hear is absolutely awful and what he did was murder..
“It was murder to get his hands on this man’s money.”
Mr Joyce said on June 19 last year Mr Snell, who was single and retired, went to Chesterfield police station.
He said he complained that Walsh had been stealing from his bank account and asked to see a police officer.
Mr Joyce said an officer went to the Marsden Street address where both men lived the following morning but there was no answer and calls to Mr Snell’s mobile phone went straight to answerphone.
Mr Joyce said: “By that time, 9.30am on June 20 Graham Snell was dead and it is the prosecution’s case that he had been killed by Mr Walsh about whom he had made the complaint.”
He said just over an hour later Walsh, who had not answered the door to the officer despite being inside, left the house and walked to Wickes DIY store where he bought 10 rubble sacks and two saws which he took back to the address.
Mr Joyce said: “What did he want the saws and the sacks for?
“He wanted the saws to cut through the bones of the dead body of Graham Snell and the sacks to put parts of his body in the carry them away.”
Mr Joyce said two days later Walsh caught a train to Birmingham where he tried and failed to obtain an emergency passport.
He said that by June 24 the disposal of Mr Snell’s body began.
Mr Joyce said: “Many parts of Graham Snell’s body were either buried or pushed down into various parts of a badger sett.
“Later the police and the Royal Engineers were to spend nearly a month examining the badger sett.
“The head and arms were buried in parts of a wood a little way away.
“On July 2, the remainder of Mr Snell’s torso in three parts was recovered inside three black bags from the main rubbish bins that services flats in Oakamoor Close.”
Mr Joyce said in the following days Walsh made trips to casinos in Sheffield and arcades in Matlock Bath where he spent “a considerable amount of money he managed to obtain from Graham Snell’s accounts after his death”.
Mr Joyce told the jury how Walsh was jailed for six months in 2009 for stealing £5,000 from Mr Snell and in 2014 he was convicted of assaulting him.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Snell’s family said he was “a lovely, proud and brave man who kept himself to himself”.
One of Mr Snell’s nieces said: “The fact that he was dismembered in such way absolutely disgusts me.
“Graham had his life cut short in the cruellest of ways and even now before I go to sleep I worry what he suffered and what he went through.
“Graham was a lovely proud and brave man who kept himself to himself and I never heard him say a bad word about anyone.”
Walsh’s original trial in March this year had to be halted due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
And in a remarkable turn of events yesterday, Judge Nirmal Shant QC, Honorary Recorder of Derby, told Derby Crown Court Walsh had dispensed of his legal team.
She said Walsh had refused to come to court but he did appear via videolink from HMP Nottingham.
After granting him permission to address her, Walsh told Judge Shant: “In light of this whole court charade, I am not happy with anything my defence have given you.”
Judge Shant replied: “I will grant you until January 4 to find a new legal team but I will sentence you on that date.
“You have been convicted of murder and that will mean a whole life sentence.
“The only issue will be the minimum term you serve before you are eligible to apply for parole.”
*story by Mirror Online