A serial killer who styled himself on TV psychopath Dexter has been found guilty of murdering and dismembering two men in his remote woodland cabin.
James Desborough, 40, was responsible for ‘three explosions of fatal violence in less than six months’ when he ruthlessly targeted two men he met at a homeless shelter, followed by his prison cellmate while awaiting trial for their murders.
He was today convicted following a trial at Winchester Crown Court of the murders of Claudio Aquilino, 57, and Daniel Coleman, 43, whose burnt remains he hid in dense undergrowth surrounding his shack near St Austell, Cornwall, between April and June last year.
Desborough had already been found guilty in a separate trial this year of murdering his prison cellmate, 65-year-old Steven Kempster, whom he strangled at HMP Exeter last September – because he was snoring too loudly. He was jailed at the time for life with a minimum term of 19 years.
A former construction boss, Desborough had fallen into addiction and began living off grid on land he bought in Paramood Woods, Sticker, where he would occasionally let people camp, including one of his eventual victims, Mr Coleman.
Desborough is believed to have killed Mr Aquilino in April last year and Mr Coleman in June, before accessing their bank accounts and creating an elaborate paper trail to make it appear both men were still alive.
Jurors were told that Desborough had been in a love triangle with Mr Coleman and his wife Hannah Cresswell, whom he met at Sandy Lodge, a shelter in Newquay for the homeless and drug dependent.
Texts sent by Desborough in the lead up to Mr Coleman’s murder revealed his ‘escalating anger’ towards him in ‘vivid and unambiguous terms’, prosecutor Ahmed Hossain KC told the jury, including a message warning he was ‘absolutely bloodthirsty’.
Just weeks earlier, Mr Aquilino also had the misfortune of making Desborough’s acquaintance at Sandy Lodge. He rang police in terror on the day before he was last seen, April 17 2025, telling the operator that Desborough was ‘really off his head’ and trying to drag him into criminality.
By strange coincidence, Mr Coleman also phoned 101 on the last day of his life to report, in cryptic terms, concerns about Desborough – saying his wife had friends who would ‘do this and that’ to him. Neither of the men gave Desborough’s full name to the police call handlers.
Both of the victims were last seen leaving pubs in the company of Desborough.
When police eventually came to search Desborough’s land in July last year, they were initially only chasing up a missing person report about Mr Coleman – until they stumbled across Mr Aquilino’s remains by chance in a stream running next to the cabin.
Investigators would go on to uncover 1,900 burned bone fragments believed to be from the body of Mr Aquilino, while parts of Mr Coleman’s dismembered body, including his torso, legs and feet, were found in a shallow grave nearby.
Police also found handwritten notes in Desborough’s shack in which he described himself as ‘a killer, ready to kill and execute any predators’.
James Desborough, 40, was responsible for ‘three explosions of fatal violence in less than six months’ when he ruthlessly targeted two men he met at a homeless shelter, followed by his prison cellmate while awaiting trial for their murders
Daniel Coleman, 43, was murdered by Desborough after he and his wife became embroiled in a love triangle with him
Claudio Aquilino, 57, was killed by Desborough in April 2025 after meeting him at a homeless shelter in Cornwall
Desborough is believed to have committed the murders in a woodland shack where he was living off grid near St Austell, Cornwall
Investigators discovered the dismembered remains of Mr Aquilino in this stream running next to Desborough’s cabin
Police found a note written by Desborough in his woodland shack saying ‘I know I’m a killer, ready to kill and execute any predators’
An axe discovered in the woods during police searches was later found to have Mr Aquilino’s DNA on it
There were other handwritten notes including one headed ‘Bug out list’ and another titled ‘Hostiles’ which included the entry ‘Dan’ with three crosses beside it – an apparent reference to Mr Coleman.
Desborough was present at various points during the police searches and mentioned casually to a forensic biologist on the scene that he ‘particularly enjoyed the dismemberment scenes’ in the US TV series Dexter.
Prosecutor Mr Hossain told jurors: ‘That is a series which involves scenes of dismemberment and disposal of bodies.
‘There are many, many people who are fans of the television programme Dexter but, on the behalf of the prosecution, when you consider that comment by Mr Desborough together with the fact that two dismembered bodies were found on his land, that the comment takes on a particular significance.’
The court also heard that Desborough had made plans to leave the UK weeks before he was arrested.
At trial, Desborough mounted a risible defence, claiming a ‘series of unfortunate circumstances’ had seen him come across the two men already dead on his land and he had simply decided to ‘destroy’ their remains.
He told jurors: ‘I don’t think I was very well mentally or emotionally at that time. I was suffering from drug abuse, drinking – I think I lost all grip on reality.’
It also emerged that Desborough bought ‘a large beef roast’ after dismembering Mr Coleman, but he insisted it was not ‘unpleasant’ and ‘just every day life’.
When asked why he had written ‘I am a killer’ in his diary, Desborough claimed: ‘I was experimenting with creative writing and journalism.’
It can now be revealed that while Desborough was on remand at HMP Exeter awaiting trial for the double murder, he strangled his cellmate, Mr Kempster, whom he had started to find irritating due to his snoring and his habit of returning Desborough’s cutlery unwashed.
Prison staff discovered Mr Kempster lying dead on the floor of the cell on the morning of September 12 last year, with Desborough trying to claim his cellmate must have fallen from his bunk in the night and suffered fatal injuries.
Desborough posted menacing photos of his increasingly chaotic life outdoors on his social media profile
Desborough will be jailed for the murders of his two friends from the hostel on Wednesday
Desborough was caught on CCTV with Mr Coleman at a pub in Truro on the day he is believed to have been murdered
Desborough was also caught on CCTV on the night he murdered his cellmate Steven Kempster, 65, at HMP Exeter while awaiting trial for the murders of Mr Coleman and Mr Aquilino
Desborough, a father-of-two, appears to have dropped out of society after once running his own construction company
In clips posted on social media in 2024, Desborough described how he suffered from PTSD after being discharged from the military
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Giving evidence at Exeter Crown Court earlier this year, Desborough accepted he had told other inmates he would give Mr Kempster a beating, but insisted it was banter.
He eventually claimed he had killed Mr Kempster in self-defence after they got into a fight because his cellmate had touched his penis and said of his reasons for changing his story: ‘I was delusional and hoping there could be another cause of death.’
‘I didn’t mean to kill him,’ he added. Desborough was convicted of Mr Kempster’s murder by a majority verdict on March 27, but full details of the trial can only be reported for the first time today.
Desborough, a father-of-two, appears to have dropped out of society after once running his own construction company – Desboroughs – the work of which he regularly catalogued on a Facebook page.
Before moving to the woods, he had lived for a time in Cambourne, Cornwall, with his then girlfriend. A former neighbour told the Mail: ‘They had a volatile relationship and she called the police on him once. He was always quite pleasant to me, would have a laugh and a joke, but they used to fall out.’
In 2024, he undertook a ‘mile a day’ walking challenge in support of military veterans and posted regular video updates on social media page, reflecting on his own struggles with PTSD after being discharged from the military.
In one clip, he described how issues with his legs were preventing him from working or driving and spoke at length about addiction issues among veterans.
He failed to mention that he, too, was struggling with substance abuse, which would ultimately bring him into the orbit of his victims.
Mr Aquilino was originally from Italy and stayed in almost daily contact with his family after moving to the UK, despite his long-standing drug addiction.
His stepmother Carol told the Mail: ‘Claudio was a drug addict. He was on hard drugs but was trying to get clean with methadone.
‘We last saw Claudio six or seven months ago when we kicked him out. He used to come to our house begging for money but we would only give him food.
‘I used to get his sister to go and get him some food but would never give him money.’
Mr Aquilino had been living at Sandy Lodge from January 2025 until just before his death in April last year, when he was evicted for stealing another resident’s phone.
The story of Mr Coleman’s life followed a similarly troubled trajectory. His brother, Tony Nye, told the Mail: ‘I hadn’t spoken to Daniel for a long time, but I understand he had been living in a tent in the woods.
‘My brother was a veteran but had to be discharged after he broke his neck playing ice hockey.’
The trial heard Mr Coleman and his wife had a ‘turbulent’ relationship, ‘plagued by alcohol misuse’, which led to them moving into Sandy Lodge and then, in the month before his death, to a tent on Desborough’s land.
They were sucked into an ugly love triangle with Desborough which appeared to sow the seeds of his murderous hatred of Mr Coleman.
One acquaintance of the couple, who also spent some time living on his land, told the trial that Desborough once stared at Mr Coleman and said: ‘Looks like someone else is getting buried in the woods.’
It took jurors just three hours and 15 minutes to convict Desborough of the murders of Mr Coleman and Mr Aquilino.
Desborough will be sentenced for the two murders on Wednesday.
