vulnerable father-of-two was tortured and murdered by a gang of men who also forced him to eat one of his own testicles.

Prosecution said he had regarded the gang of four people as his friends.

Forty-five-year old Jimmy Prout was allegedly subjected to months of vicious abuse by the group before they dumped his body on wasteland, a jury was told.

The four men: Ann Corbett, 26, Zahid Zaman, 43, Myra Wood, 50, and Kay Rayworth, 56, denied murdering him or causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult.

They have all pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.

The jury at Newcastle Crown Court heard the group of five had a strange relationship which had developed to an almost ‘cultish dimension.’

It is alleged that a series of events in late 2015 created tensions which led to a number of serious assaults against the late Prout, which included him having his teeth knocked out with a hammer and chisel.

The Queen’s Counsel, Paul Greaney, prosecuting, said: “In effect, over a period of time, Jimmy Prout was not just mistreated, he was tortured.

“The prosecution case is that the four defendants took part in that violence against Jimmy Prout, either inflicting injuries directly or assisting or encouraging the other members of the group to do so.

“In the end, this conduct was to cause the death of Jimmy Prout.”
He added: “Awfully, on one occasion, Jimmy Prout’s scrotum was sliced open and his testicle was removed; he was then forced to eat it.”

Mr. Greaney said the evidence suggested Mr. Prout died on February 9, 2016, and his body was dumped on wasteland 100 metres from his home where it began to decompose and was partly eaten by animals.