
After deliberating for just over an hour yesterday a Derby Crown Court jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty.
30-year-old Daniel Walsh was accused of murdering and dismembering his 71-year-old uncle, Graham Snell on June 20, 2019.
The court heard that the day before Snell was killed, he had gone to police about the fact that his nephew, who was residing with him at the time, was stealing money from his bank account.
The prosecutor Peter Joyce QC told the court that Walsh's intention was to commit "a murder to get his hands on this old, retired man's money and just dispose of him as a piece of rubbish." Joyce continued saying, "He killed him, he chopped him up and fed him to the badgers." To that end, Walsh had purchased ten garbage bags, two handsaws and a burning bin.
Walsh denied the accusation that he had murdered his uncle attesting instead, that he had found his uncle dead in the bathroom, foaming at the mouth with a "white powder" on his nose and cheek.
He claimed to have drug his uncle downstairs to the kitchen in order to preform chest compressions. "I tried everything to try and bring him back to life. I was in a state of panic."
"I was just in an unexplainable and incomprehensible situation," he said, explaining to the court why he didn't call emergency services. He additionally stated that he as concerned that if police responded, they would locate his drugs and accuse him of murder. "I was just distressed by the situation. I didn't know what to do,. I was in a state of shock."
Four days after his uncle's death, Walsh loaded some of the garbage bags into a taxi and traveled back to a residence he had previously resided at and dumped the bags into communal bins there. The remains were discovered later that week.
Walsh also attempted to dispose of some of his uncle's remains by putting them into a badger den. His arms and head were finally recovered earlier this year after Welsh marked their location on a map for investigators.
Due to the dismemberment, investigations were not able to determine a cause of death for Snell.
After his death, Welsh transferred hundreds of pounds from his uncle's account into his own and then spent the money on drugs, alcohol, and trips to massage parlors.
Welsh requested that he be allowed to have legal representation before the sentencing. It is unclear when his dismissed his counsel, but the sentencing was delayed until January 4, 2021 by Judge Nirmal Shant QC in order to provide time for him to obtain new counsel.
He faces the possibility of a life sentence.