Cornwall killer jailed for life after murdering homeless men in woodland

James Desborough was jailed for life at Winchester Crown Court and given two whole life orders, meaning he will never be released, after a jury convicted him of murdering Claudio Aquilino and Daniel Coleman. The sentence followed Mr Justice Saini’s remarks in a case that exposed how two homeless men were drawn into a deadly orbit around a shelter in Newquay before being killed on Desborough’s land in Cornwall.

Aquilino, 57, and Coleman, 43, were murdered in 2025 at Paramoor Woods, Sticker, after meeting Desborough at Sandy Lodge homeless shelter in Newquay. Court records say Desborough dismembered the men and burned and buried their remains in woodland near his home. He had already pleaded guilty on 25 March 2026 to preventing the lawful burial of the bodies, a charge that reflected the effort to hide what had happened after the killings.

The case has sharpened scrutiny of the men’s vulnerability and the systems around them. Aquilino and Coleman were both living without stable housing when they came into contact with Desborough at Sandy Lodge, a setting that placed them in close contact with a man later found to have preyed on people with little protection and few secure ties. The killings took place on Desborough’s own land at Paramoor Woods, underscoring how easily the victims could be removed from public view.

Desborough’s violence was not limited to the Cornwall murders. Police said he had already been serving a minimum term of 19 years for murdering his prison cellmate, Steven Kempster, whom he strangled at HMP Exeter while on remand awaiting trial. That earlier killing means the Cornwall case sits within a broader pattern of lethal violence that investigators had already linked to him before the woodland murders came to light.

Devon & Cornwall Police said on 29 July 2026 they were reviewing the deaths of four more people who had shared the same homeless shelter or lodge, raising the possibility that further unexplained deaths may be connected to the same network of vulnerability. For local agencies, the case has left difficult questions about whether warning signs around Sandy Lodge, social support, and police intelligence were missed long before Desborough was brought to court.