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Three guilty of petrol murderPlay

Three guilty of petrol murder

Published: Friday, 29 May 2009, 5:19PM

Three killers who doused a teenager in petrol and burned him alive in a re-enactment of a scene from a horror movie are facing life sentences after being found guilty of murder.

The body of 17-year-old student Simon Everitt was found three weeks after he went missing on June 28 last year.

He had been tied to a tree in Mautby, Great Yarmouth, and burned alive by Maria Chandler, 40, Jimi-Lee Stewart, 25, and Jonathan Clarke, 20, in a re-enactment of a scene from a spoof horror movie, Severance. His body was then left buried in a ditch and covered with soil.

Mr Everitt was involved in a tangled love affair with a woman who had also been seeing Clarke and Stuart. Ms Chandler was the woman's friend.

Each of the three defendants had threatened to harm Mr Everitt and Clarke had been charged with assaulting him shortly before the murder.

Prosecutor Karim Khalil QC said: "He was initially assaulted. He was bundled into a car, taken to a forest or wooded area. He was then tied to a tree with blue nylon roping."

He added: "Petrol was poured on to him and into his throat. He was then set on fire whilst tied to that tree.

"The rope burned through. He was still alive. He stepped from the tree a short distance, still alight, and there he was to die."

Responding to the verdict, the victim's stepmother, Susan, branded the killers "evil" and said her stepson had done nothing wrong except fall in love with "the wrong girl".

She said: "Simon did not deserve it, no one deserved it. He did not do anything wrong apart from fall in love with the wrong girl."

Chandler and Stewart, both of Great Yarmouth, and Clarke, of Telford, Shropshire were arrested when Stewart's mother turned him in.

Susan Lewis, 46, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, called detectives after Jimi-Lee Stewart confessed to being involved.

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.