How ‘Dark Ages’ torture victim Jimmy Prout was murdered by UK’s most evil cult – & 17 missed chances to save his life
TWISTED members of Britain’s most evil “cult” tortured a dad to death before dumping his body on a wasteland.
Vulnerable Jimmy Prout, 45, was forced to eat his own testicle during a horrific campaign of violence that led to his agonising death.
He was also made to have sex with a dog, starved, his teeth knocked out and beaten until he was black and blue.
Tragically a damning report, published in March, seven years after Jimmy was found dead, revealed that authorities missed 17 opportunities to rescue Jimmy from the abuse.
The “Dark Ages” torture was led by the evil Zahid Zaman, who acted as the ringleader of a group of misfits who lived two houses apart on the same street.
On one occasion, wheelchair-bound Zaman knocked Jimmy’s teeth out with a hammer and chisel.
Jimmy had believed they were his friends, but the gang members actually subjected him to acts of humiliation and exploited him financially before his death.
He even took to Facebook to post pictures of his injuries at the time, with words such as “My bodie hurt” and “My sholder hurts”.
The dad-of-two was ultimately found dead on wasteland just 100 metres from his home in North Tyneside seven years ago.
He was not discovered until more than a month after his body was dumped on February 9, 2016.
His body had started to decompose by the time he was finally found.
Ann Corbett, then 26, who was in a relationship with Mr Prout, and Zaman were later convicted of his murder.
Myra Wood and Kay Rayworth were cleared of murder but convicted of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult.
Rayworth and Corbett, at Zaman’s behest, even returned to the body to steal Jimmy’s bank card to steal hundreds of pounds from his account.
A trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard the group of five had a strange relationship, which had subsequently developed a “cultish dimension”.
Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, said: “In effect, over a period of time, Jimmy Prout was not just mistreated, he was tortured.
“In the end, this conduct was to cause the death of Jimmy Prout.”
After becoming homeless, Jimmy met cult leader Zaman at a soup kitchen – the place Zaman went to scope out vulnerable targets.
Jimmy, desperate for a roof over his head, soon moved into Zaman’s home, where he became a “lackey”, or servant – and that’s when the sickening abuse started.
On the surface, Zaman was a harmless pillar of the community.
He attended charity events with local politicians and once refused a reward for returning a lost dog to its owner.
But behind closed doors he was a twisted cult leader, who gathered and manipulated vulnerable people who he could control.
Jimmy was tragically too afraid to speak out about the abuse he was suffering.
‘Seventeen missed opportunities’
A Domestic Homicide Review earlier this year found 17 missed opportunities to identify Jimmy as a victim.
The report concluded that Jimmy was abused “in plain sight”, but those who could have protected him failed to raise the alarm, MailOnline reports.
It adds: “It is well documented that perpetrators of domestic abuse control their victims through following them to appointments and insist on attending appointments and it is therefore best practice to seek to speak to people alone whenever possible.
“This did not happen and as a result Jimmy did not have the opportunity to speak to professionals at any point during the timeframe of the review on his own.”
The report found safeguarding alerts should have been raised after GP appointments, police interviews and visits to A&E.
The cult members used appointments to reinforce their control over Jimmy, with professionals failing to see him alone.
Professional curiosity was also found to be lacking in his tragic case.
Following the report, North Tyneside Council chief executive Paul Hanson admitted Jimmy’s life could have been saved if agencies had better communicated.
He said: “We welcome the findings of the review and we have already completed work on the recommendations. I accept that if services had communicated more frequently, through the right channels, a greater picture of Jimmy’s life could have been painted.
“This more complete picture might have provided us with a greater chance to protect Jimmy from the people who murdered him.”
