A man with learning disabilities was humiliated, tortured, and then thrown into a river to drown by four neighbours who suspected that he was a paedophile, a murder trial has heard.

The two men and two women, who are sisters, lured "trusting and vulnerable" Sean Miles, 37, to a house where he was beaten and stuck with knives. He was then taken to a different address where he was made to strip and hit with a golf club.

Finally Mr Miles, who has in IQ of just 50, was taken to the Thames in Oxford where he was thrown into the river. He could not swim and his injuries were so severe that he had no chance of saving himself, Oxford Crown Court was told.

Each time he surfaced he was pushed back under with a stick. His body was discovered by a lock keeper 10 days later in May last year.

Edward Doyle, 34; Terry McMasters, 24; Tracey Fathers, 36, and her sister Karen, who all live on the same road in Oxford, deny his murder.

Adrian Redgrave, prosecuting, told the jury it would hear how, when arrested, the defendants would point the finger away from themselves. "Each blames the other and each tells very different stories," he said.

The court heard that Mr Miles, who lived in sheltered housing, was unable to look after himself properly and required regular care.

Karen Fathers, who was trusted as a friend by Mr Miles, had persuaded him to follow her to McMasters's house because one of the four co-accused had come to the conclusion that Mr Miles had interfered with the four-year-old son of one of the women. Mr Redgrave said: "Over the course of the following hours Sean Miles was subjected to insults, indignity and violence that was intensely psychologically humiliating."

Mr Redgrave read from statements which gave contradictory accounts of what had happened and who was responsible.

Tracey Fathers was said to have confided in a fellow prisoner at Bromfield Prison, Middlesex. Mr Redgrave said: "She told a prisoner that the murder she was charged with was pre-planned, that they were going to kill Sean."

Mr Redgrave added: "The case is that they were all criminally involved in the killing of Sean Miles."

Robert Fox, the managing director of the accommodation where Mr Miles lived, described him as "a sweet man, who never did anything to harm anyone.

"Sean was very trusting of everyone and as soon as you talked to him, he believed he had found a friend."

The court heard that Mr Miles had allegedly been bullied by Doyle in the past.

Goosey's Gabbings...

Alright, rant here...so, you think you know who a pedophile is; you have your sickened thoughts about them, your hatred towards their deviant lifestyle. So--you then decide to lure the person in, beat the crap out of him, stab him, strip him, continue to beat him, and then torturously drown him?

Ummm...

Even if this WAS a pedophile, who is the bigger threat here? Vigilance is sometimes worse than the dictatorship....

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