Brett Youngs

Brett Youngswas  beaten to death and set on fire at a squat that he was living in.

He died from head injuries in his bed after which his house he lived in was set on fire at about 4.30am. A burnt baseball bat was found in his room which was thought to have been the murder weapon. After he was murdered petrol had been poured over his body and bed and set alight.

He had been living in a squat at the time with a number of other people. At the time, many of the other occupants had gone to a rave in Hertfordshire for the Bank Holiday weekend but Brett Youngs had stayed because alcohol and drugs exacerbated his eczema.

Other people living in the house were woken up at 4.30am by smoke coming from the first floor.

A man that had lived in the same house as Brett Youngs was tried for his murder twice but acquitted both times.

It was heard that when he had left the house he had smelt smoke and had then driven three miles and then called the fire brigade after which he went by train to his parent’s farm in Surrey. It was said that they had had a late-night row.

The man that was tried for his murder had a pet Doberman or Labrador dog and had said that he was going home to see his parents earlier on in the night and gone off. After he had left another occupant had gone up to Brett Youngs's room and seen him working and spoke to him.

It was said then that the man that was tried for his murder then returned saying that he had missed the last train to Cobham and that he was going to bed.

Other flatmates said that they heard the sound of a muffled argument from the first floor which Brett Youngs lived on, between 12.30am and 1.30am and also heard Brett Youngs shout out. One of the flatmates also said that he heard the sound of a dog scratching with its paws.

It was heard that the man that was tried for the murder had called some friends after the fire and told them about it. They said that something about his tone was not right. They said that he sounded frantic and paranoid and that he had told them that his dog had woken him up because of the smoke and that he had called 999 and then fled the scene.

An expert in cell phones said that the base station that the man had called from was about 1km away from the house and that there was a 1.8% chance that he had been at the house at the time he made the call and said that he would have said that he was a significant distance away when he had made it. It was heard that the call that the man had made had lasted for 13 seconds.

In court, it was heard that Brett Youngs and the man tried were not on good terms as the man that was tried was of the opinion that the raves that Brett Youngs organised and the music that he made was dark and he didn't like it.

It was also heard that the man on trial had been taking a lot of powerful skunk weed and using the horse tranquilliser ketamine and had developed strange views on religion and thought that he was a soldier in a war between good and evil. It was heard that he had referred to several people as devils.

When the man tried for the murder was arrested at his parents farm he refused to answer any questions and gave no evidence in court but his lawyers read out statements from eleven of his friends and family.