A COUPLE beat and starved a vulnerable man to death after he was sent to live with them by social workers, a court heard.
Rubin Blount, 28, resembled a ‘walking skeleton’ in the weeks before his death and was seen scavenging for food in bins, it is claimed.
When he died he weighed just seven stones and had suffered multiple rib fractures, a fractured spine and cigarette burns, jurors were told.
Kenneth Newton, 57, and Melanie James, 63, are accused of murdering Mr Blount at their home in Tamworth, Staffordshire, in November 2022.
A court heard the couple forced him to stand and filmed themselves mocking and threatening him.
Jennifer Josephs KC said ‘cruel and violent’ Newton and James ‘treated their dog with more kindness and care’ than the man they were supposed to be caring for.
She told jurors that Newton was a ‘sort of step-brother’ to the victim, having been raised by Mr Blount’s father.
But she said the defendants – who were described in court as ‘recovering drug addicts’ – kept Mr Blount in their council house ‘for their own financial benefit’ and abused him ‘for their own fun and kicks’.
Rubin Blount was starved and ‘viciously assaulted’, jurors were told
Police at the scene following Mr Blount’s death in Stoneydelph, Tamworth, in 2022
‘These defendants did not care for Rubin,’ added Miss Josephs, ‘They starved him and beat him and did nothing to help him.
‘He was someone to be belittled, mocked, assaulted and kept there for their own financial benefit.
‘Rubin had been battered, assaulted, his ribs fractured, he had cigarette burns and injuries.
‘They didn’t just neglect and mistreat him. The crown’s case is that they viciously assaulted him.’
Stafford Crown Court was told that after Mr Blount had died, it was discovered he had nearly 50 rib fractures ‘seemingly caused on three separate occasions’, as well as a small spinal fracture.
Miss Josephs said these injuries were ’caused by violence…such as punches, kicks, stamps.’
The court was told Mr Blount, who had a low IQ and learning disabilities, spent the first 20 years of his life living with his parents Eric and Jeanette Blount, until there were ‘some concerns’ in 2015 which led to him moving in with the defendants.
Miss Josephs said : ‘It was agreed with all including social services that he would move in with the defendants.
‘Both defendants had both known Rubin since he was born.
‘They both agreed that he would live with them, becoming a member of their household and they had assumed a level of responsibility for him.’
The court heard James managed his finances and bank card, receiving £1,100 in benefits for all three of them into Mr Blount’s account.
The walls of their ‘disgusting’ house, which had no heating, was covered in mould and stank of urine, Miss Josephs said.
The prosecutor said the arrangement gave them the ‘financial benefit of (Mr Blount) having the bedroom, and of course kept their source of money – Rubin’s bank account.’
Miss Josephs said members of the local community ‘saw with their own eyes’ how the popular Mr Blount deteriorated over time.
‘A few weeks before he died, he looked like a walking skeleton’, the prosecutor added.
‘He helped out in a local shop. The shopkeeper said he was always dirty and had poor hygiene but he was a lovely boy.
‘Sometimes she gave him the odd tenner, sometimes she would give him food which he devoured, saying ‘don’t tell Mel’.
The court heard Mr Blount used to regularly go to the local fish and chip shop and order three meals, but over time, James began placing the order and it became clear to the server that it ‘didn’t include food for Rubin.’
‘This person last saw Rubin in October 2022, so a month or so before he died – and saw Rubin eating out of one of the bins in the street.
‘He was described as so thin he had difficulty walking and his bones could be seen.’
The court heard Mr Blount was finally hospitalised in November 2022, after James visited his parents and told them he hadn’t eaten for two days.
When they went to see their son the couple were shocked to find him in a ‘trance-like’ state and ‘thin, place, emaciated and skeletal’.
Mr Blount suffered a cardiac arrest at hospital and medics discovered he was suffering from pneumonia, had multiple rib fractures, kidney and liver disfunction and heart damage.
He died four days later, with the cause of death recorded as septic shock, due to pneumonia and damage to the lung.
Miss Josephs told jurors: ‘You may have questions or concerns about how it is he was left to live with these people…without any ongoing support.
‘These may be valid questions, but they are for another day.
‘But the fact is these two people were devious and deceitful and did their best to pull the wool over the eyes of the authorities.
‘What we are looking at is the culpability of these two people who were left to their own devices and were able to neglect, abuse, assault, and kill a vulnerable man they were meant to be caring for.’
James and Newton, both of Handsworth, Birmingham, deny murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.
They also deny alternative charges of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult between November 1 and 27, 2022.
The trial continues.
