A SEX offender was murdered in his flat before his body was stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a shallow grave in the woods, a court heard yesterday.

Geoffrey Reed, who served 10 years in prison for raping a vulnerable adult and a child, was found doubled up in a foetal position in a suitcase hidden on land off Huntick Road in Lytchett Matravers, the hearing was told.

Half-brothers Stuart Raymond Wareham, 26, and Lee Raymond Wareham, 33, are accused together with Benjamin Henry Walter, 22, of murdering Mr Reed between June 6 and June 14 last year.

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Prosecutor Timothy Mousley QC told the jury at Winchester Crown Court that 57-year-old Mr Reed, who weighed eight stones and was described as “frail”, was killed in his flat in Cecil Road, Boscombe.

Mr Mousley QC added: “His body was then taken 13 miles or so in a suitcase in the back of a car to a shallow grave in the woods at Lytchett Matravers, west of Poole.”

A post mortem examination revealed Mr Reed had received multiple severe blunt force injuries to the head, neck and chest, the court was told.

Mr Mousley QC said Mr Reed was found with a plastic bag over his head and a ligature around his neck. He had 28 rib fractures and two fractures of the breast bone.

Mr Reed had also suffered “overwhelming” crushing injuries to the neck which was typical of stamping or jumping on the neck, he added. The court heard Mr Reed was living in the cramped flat in Cecil Road with a number of people including Stuart Wareham and Benjamin Walter.

Mr Mousley QC told the court that in March last year Stuart Wareham discovered paperwork which revealed Mr Reed was a registered sex offender and is alleged to have said he “hated Reed for what he had been in prison for”.

The court heard Mr Reed was jailed in 2002 to 10 years in prison for four counts of rape. He was released in November 2011 after being recalled for breaching the terms of his licence.

The jury were shown CCTV footage of Mr Reed’s movements on the day he died. He made two visits to the Nationwide Building Society in Christchurch Road, Boscombe, with Benjamin Walter in an attempt to withdraw money.

Mr Mousley QC said Mr Reed was last seen alive returning back to his flat at 11.45am.

Further CCTV footage was shown to the jury of Benjamin Walter emerging from the flat dressed in Mr Reed’s distinctive jacket and of Stuart Wareham carrying a suitcase out of the flat.

It is alleged Stuart Wareham put the suitcase in the boot of his sister’s car and told her it contained the body of a dog and he wanted to bury it near his grandmother’s house in Lytchett Matravers, Mr Mousley QC told the court.

He said Kelly Wareham claims she drove Stuart Wareham and Benjamin Walter to Huntick Road where CCTV shows the pair carrying two spades and a fork they had borrowed from Wareham’s grandmother Jean Skinner.

Mr Mousley QC said the court would be hearing evidence from one of the residents of the flat in Cecil Road who claims Stuart Wareham said: “I killed Geoff. I strangled him.”

All three defendants deny murder. The trial continues.