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| Joshua and Jerome Ellis guilty of stepfather killing | Joshua and Jerome Ellis guilty of stepfather killing |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Two brothers have been found guilty of killing their stepfather in a knife attack that left him with more than 60 wounds at the family home in Surrey. | |
| Joshua Ellis, 23, was convicted of murder and his brother, Jerome Ellis, 14, was found guilty of manslaughter on grounds of loss of control. | Joshua Ellis, 23, was convicted of murder and his brother, Jerome Ellis, 14, was found guilty of manslaughter on grounds of loss of control. |
| Both had denied murder but admitted manslaughter at Guildford Crown Court. | Both had denied murder but admitted manslaughter at Guildford Crown Court. |
| Jurors heard they attacked Neil Tulley, 54, as he lay on the sofa at the house in Cedar Way, Guildford, last August. | |
| Mr Tulley, who was in a relationship with their mother Marie, was "asleep or nearly asleep" at the time of the attack, which was so severe he was nearly beheaded. | Mr Tulley, who was in a relationship with their mother Marie, was "asleep or nearly asleep" at the time of the attack, which was so severe he was nearly beheaded. |
| During the trial, prosecutor Philip Katz QC said the brothers had a complicated family background, with the adults described as "dysfunctional". | |
| 'Almost decapitated' | |
| A year earlier, Mr Tulley had threatened to kill Joshua and had swung at him with an axe, the court heard. | |
| Jurors heard Mr Tulley was arrested and charged with making threats to kill but was acquitted. | |
| The court heard Mr Tulley returned to the crowded family home but relationships deteriorated. | |
| Mr Katz told jurors the brothers went on to act together and killed Mr Tulley who was in effect their stepfather. | |
| "Each of them was armed with a kitchen knife, a very large substantial kitchen knife, and stabbed Neil Tulley to death in what the prosecution would say was a savage attack in which he was almost decapitated," he added. | |
| He said Mr Tulley was "asleep or nearly asleep" and there could not be any question of the two defendants acting in self-defence. | |
| The brothers had accepted they were involved in the stabbing, but had denied charges of murder. | |
| They argued they suffered a loss of control, which would reduce the crime to manslaughter. | |
| A post-mortem examination confirmed Mr Tulley died from multiple stab wounds and found he had "65 separate sites of injury" across the whole of his body, with the most severe wounds at the neck. | |
| Both brothers were remanded in custody to await sentencing on 10 April. |