Chesterfield man who murdered pensioner fired his legal team after he was found guilty then demanded new representation before he is sentenced

Daniel Walsh was found guilty of murder at Derby Crown Court on Friday, Decenber 11 following a three week trial.

Today (Monday, December 14), the court was told that Walsh had refused to get into the prisoner transport for a sentencing that was due to start at 10.30am.

The case was adjourned until midday, for Walsh to be produced via videolink from prison - which he also initially refused to do.

Walsh then changed his mind but told the court he wanted a new legal team before he is sentenced for murdering Graham Snell, 71, at the house they were sharing in Marsden Street, Chesterfield, on June 20 last year.

On Friday, Walsh was found guilty unanimously by the jury after around n hour of deliberations.

The court heard that Walsh had moved in with Mr Snell in May 2019, and had immediately set about trying to steal Mr Snell’s money.

On June 19, the pensioner had found out that the 30-year-old had accessed his bank accounts and had gone to the Halifax branch in Chesterfield where it was discovered that Walsh had set up an online profile, pretending to be Mr Snell, and had started withdrawing money from his account.

The bank’s fraud team got involved and Mr Snell was told he must involve the police, and immediately went to Chesterfield Police Station.

But when an officer attended the following day, nobody answered and it wasn’t until 10 days later that neighbours finally reported Mr Snell as a missing person.

In the days that followed, Walsh managed to access Mr Snell’s accounts again - this time posing as the pensioner to set up telephone banking while he was “bagged up in the cellar” - went to DIY stores around Chesterfield and bought saws, rubble sacks, and a burning bin and set about disposing of Mr Snell’s body.

He cut the pensioner into ten pieces and disposed of the majority in a badgers’ set in remote woodland, and some in a communal bin at the flats where his brother lived.

He then set off on a lavish spending spree, blowing money on alcohol and cocaine, and visiting Sheffield where he went to casinos and a massage parlour, went to Matlock Bath to play in the arcades, and travelled to Birmingham in a bid to get an emergency passport so he could flee the country.

When arrested, he had given a bundled account to detectives about Mr Snell being in hospital, and later changed his story - saying he had found Mr Snell dead in the toilet after a night of alcohol and cocaine, and panicked because he thought he would be blamed for his death.

Judge Nirmal Shant QC agreed to adjourn the sentencing until January 4, because of the grave nature of Walsh’s crimes, but told him he would be sentenced on that date whether he had legal representation in place or not.

She said that he had been found guilty of murder and would receive a life sentence.

The only thing left to consider was the minimum term he would receive before he would be eligible for parole, the judge said.

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