Pair found guilty of throat-slitting murder of Long Eaton's Owen Fairclough

Two men who conspired together to slit the throat of a 21-year-old Derbyshire man and dumped his body in a stream have been found guilty of his murder. Following a five-week trial at Derby Crown Court, a jury took eight full days of deliberation hours to unanimously convict David Oswald, and one other man who cannot be named for legal reasons - known as Man A - of the brutal killing of Owen Fairclough.

They also found the pair guilty of having an offensive weapon but are yet to reach verdicts on a third defendant - who also cannot bee named and is known as Man B.

A fourth defendant, Jack Towell, changed his previous not guilty plea to guilty partway through the trial. Remanding the men into custody until they are sentenced on a date to be confirmed, Judge Gregory Dickinson KC said: “The sentence for murder is life but I must set a minimum term (they must serve until they are eligible to apply for parole).”

During the trial, the jury of seven women and five men heard how the body of Mr Fairclough, of Breedon Road, Long Eaton, was discovered by a gang of young teens with his feet lying in the water in Breaston. The motive, the prosecution claimed, was that the group believed the victim was preparing to expose their drug dealing criminality to the police.

Prosecutor Peter Joyce KC, when he opened the trial, said: “At 7.20pm on Jun 23, 2023, a number of young boys, teenagers, went together to a small, secluded wooded area just off a cycle path close to the Navigation Inn, in Breaston, near Long Eaton, in Derbyshire. There, they found lying with his legs in a stream, the body of a young man.

“He had a massive injury from here to here, across his throat, where his throat had been cut. He had also been stabbed to the front of his body.”

Mr Joyce said: "The prosecution's case, in a nutshell, is that on the evening of June 21, 2023, Owen Fairclough had been lured to the area where his body was found, taken to the isolated, secluded, place by Towell and was killed by three of them. All four of the defendants planned the killing in the preceding days and three of them - Towell, Oswald and Man A - carrying it out was the fulfilment of that pact."

The prosecutor said: "The three - Man A, Oswald and Towell - had gone to the area in a taxi and having been dropped off went to the place where the killing was to be done. Towell left Man A and Oswald who were lying in wait.

“Towell met Owen when he was dropped off by the same taxi and Towell by now knew where he was going as he had left Oswald and Man A at the killing ground and he took Owen there and the three of them murdered him."

During the trial, the jury were taken on a site visit to the scene of the killing. They heard how Towell and Owen Fairclough “had been very good friends and they also knew each other's extensive criminal activity” and it was thought by one of the others that he wanted to expose that activity.”

Mr Joyce said 10 days before the killing, Towell had received information that Mr Fairclough was planning on going to "the feds (the police)" about his (criminal) activity.

The prosecutor said messages between two of the four men also recovered by the police spoke of them discussing the killing. He said: "One said 'have we got his boarding pass and are we sending him on holiday on Wednesday?' It was all pathetic coded talk, we say."

22-year-old Towell, of Castle Boulevard, Nottingham; Oswald, 31, of Granville Square, Birmingham and Man A, who is 22 and from the Long Eaton area, will be sentenced on a date to be confirmed.