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.”
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.
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 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”.
