Friends 'tortured, dismembered man over drug debt'
Four friends bashed, tortured, killed and dismembered a man who owed them a drug debt, a court has been told.
The body parts of Beau Davies, 24, was found in a wheelie bin at a house in Boulder belonging to Steven Roberts, 50, who is one of the four who went on trial for murder in the Supreme Court today.
Stephen Gandy, 40, Christian Gomis, 30, and Jayden Kett, 26, are also charged with murdering Mr Davies, who was said to be using and dealing methamphetamine in Kalgoorlie in the months before his death.
Prosector Bruno Fiannaca said it would be alleged that Mr Roberts and Mr Gandy, who were also in the drug business, had told various people that Mr Davies owed them money.
"They believed they had been swindled, and their patience had run out. They decided he would pay with his life," Mr Fiannaca said.
On Saturday February 15 last year, Mr Fiannaca said that the four men went to Mr Davies' house in Ware Street, where they attacked and tortured him, before ransacking his house looking for money and drugs.
"It was a brutal and sustained assault that left him unconscious and bleeding profusley," the jury was told.
But it is not clear if Mr Davies was dead when he was moved to Mr Roberts' home in Boulder, possibly in a large canvas bag.
"If he was still alive ... there can be no doubt that he met his death at Roberts' home, at the hands of the accused," Mr Fiannaca said.
It was there, prosecutors say, Mr Davies' body was chopped up in the bath and dumped in a wheelie bin.
Mr Roberts and Mr Gandy were arrested at the scene where the gruesome discovery was made.
Mr Kett was arrested the same day and Mr Gomis two days later.
All four deny murder, with the trial in Perth due to run for five weeks.
