Judge dismay at killers' reports

Protesters with "Justice for Ben" pictures outside the court

A judge has delayed sentence on three teenagers who killed sixth-former Ben Bellamy because of "unsatisfactory" probation service reports.

Mr Justice Roderick Evans said it would not be proper for him to pass sentence due to inadequacies in reports on Joel Taylor and Andrew Rafferty, both 18.

Taylor and Joshua Thomas, 16, were convicted of murdering Ben, 17, and Rafferty found guilty of manslaughter.

The probation service, which produced the reports, declined to comment.

The hearing at Swansea Crown Court was adjourned so that all three youths could be sentenced together.

Ben, from Sketty Park, Swansea, was robbed, beaten and left to drown in the sea last September while walking home after a night out in Mumbles.

Thomas had also been found guilty of robbery at the five-week trial. His two co-defendants had already admitted robbing Ben.

Ben Bellamy drowned after being attacked and robbed on a beach

Mr Justice Roderick Evans, the judge at the original trial, said on Friday that a full pre-sentence report was "obviously required".

The judge said he could not understand why it was felt unnecessary to interview an 18-year-old facing a life sentence for murder.

He also said a second report was "unargued and unreasoned," adding: "I am not, on the evidence before me, prepared to sentence".

All three were remanded in custody.

Later, outside court, a group of Ben's supporters held a banner which read "Justice for Ben".

One, who declined to say how he was connected to Ben, said he was "disgusted," but would not comment further.

Joel Taylor (left) and Joshua Thomas were convicted of murder

Outside the court, Ben's family declined to speak to reporters.

Pin number

The trial heard that Ben had been walking home from a party at a nightclub early on 18 September, 2005 when he met the teenagers who would kill him.

After befriending Ben, they lured him to the beach where they planned to steal his mobile phone and cash card.

Once on the beach he was stamped on, punched and kicked and forced to hand over the pin number of his card.

Rafferty then headed to the nearest cash machine with Ben's card, but the attack against the sixth-former continued on the beach.

Taylor and Thomas then stripped an already gravely injured Ben of his clothes and dragged and carried him into the sea to drown.

His body was discovered washed up on the beach less than five hours later by a morning jogger.