Staffordshire<\/a>, Stafford crown court heard.<\/p>\nNewton, 58, and James, 64, both from Birmingham, who had filmed themselves mocking and abusing the victim, were convicted by a jury in July of his murder.<\/p>\n
Jailing them each for a minimum of 21 years, Mrs Justice Jefford said they had been in a position of trust which they had abused and had shown an \u201cabject failure to help him when he was in pain and suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n
Blount was severely dehydrated and malnourished when he was taken to hospital after he became unwell, and he had a cardiac arrest upon arrival. He died three days later on 30 November 2022.<\/p>\n
Doctors found he had extensive pneumonia, severe infection, fractures to his ribs and spine, and burns, lesions and grazes. He had 50 rib fractures, 47 of which had been inflicted in the weeks leading up to his death.<\/p>\n
Rubin Blount was described as \u2018considerably mentally impaired\u2019 and particularly vulnerable. Photograph: Staffordshire police\/PA<\/p>\n
Jennifer Josephs KC, prosecuting, told Friday\u2019s sentencing hearing that Blount had been described as \u201cconsiderably mentally impaired\u201d and was particularly vulnerable, and that the defendants\u2019 \u201ccruel\u201d behaviour towards him was demonstrated in videos shown to the jury.<\/p>\n
Josephs said Blount must have been in \u201cextreme pain and suffering\u201d before his death, and the couple had denied him access to medical care until he was \u201cbeyond help\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Blount\u2019s death was the culmination of a prolonged course of conduct perpetrated against a man who was unable to speak for himself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Blount\u2019s mother, Jeanette Blount, said in a victim impact statement that her son was vulnerable and deserved \u201ccompassion, dignity and a chance to live his life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all believed they loved him and would take care of him. We had no reason to believe otherwise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The judge said a series of videos made by the defendants on 2 November 2022 \u201cshow Rubin emaciated, gaunt, stooped and broken, standing in the doorway\u201d. Videos showed the pair mocking him and flinging abuse at him while he was \u201cunable to defend himself or even walk away\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first 25 rib fractures were inflicted before or shortly after this recording was made,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
James sobbed as the court was told that the abuse and violence inflicted on Blount went on for months.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Wade KC, defending James, said: \u201cNo one could fail to be disgusted by Melanie James\u2019s actions towards this vulnerable man. She is a woman who has had a difficult life of her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is some evidence to show that at one point she did care for Rubin and did love him, and him her.\u201d Something \u201cshifted\u201d, she said, due to James\u2019s \u201cability to cope with the stresses and strains of life and that was much to Rubin\u2019s detriment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mark Heywood KC, defending Newton, said Blount was, through no fault of his own, a \u201cchallenging\u201d person to care for. The circumstances leading to his death \u201ccan\u2019t be dealt with as simply as saying he was financially advantageous for them, or that he became a burden\u201d, he said. The couple were \u201cill-equipped\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking outside the court, DCI Ian Fitzgerald, of Staffordshire police, said: \u201cThe extent of the injuries Rubin suffered, the state that he was in and the arrogance [of the defendants] in the way they thought they could try and get away with it and blame him for his injuries was shocking and very, very distressing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple convicted of murder after inflicting \u201cdeliberate cruelty\u201d on a vulnerable 28-year-old man in their care, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}