A man who hid an arson suspect’s body inside a wheelie bin has been jailed.
The body of Paul Smith was discovered in a bin in Everton on July 22 last year, a full week after he is believed to have started a deadly St Helens fire.
Sheila Jackson and her partner Eric Greener died from burns and smoke inhalation caused by the blaze at the property on South John Street.
Kevin Weetman, Kylie Maynard and Lee Owens, were all convicted of the pensioners’ manslaughter at Liverpool Crown Court in February this year.
Steven Wales has now been convicted for concealing Smith’s body in the bin and moving it a nearby overgrown garden after he died of a drugs overdose.
The 61-year-old found the body in his bath before hiding it in the bin behind derelict housing and calling 999 only two days later to report the death.
Smith, known as ‘Smigger’, was described as a working family man by the prosecution who said his Class A drug dependency led to a ‘chaotic lifestyle’.
Wales, who pleaded guilty to preventing a lawful and decent burial, claimed he ‘panicked’ due to being on licence and not wanting to return to prison.
He had invited Smith to his home in Coniston Street where they had taken drugs together before the guest asked to take a bath and wash his clothes.
Upon returning to the property, he discovered the father-of-five deceased in the bath with a needle close by before moving him to a place out of sight.
In a statement read to the court, Smith’s family labelled Wales ‘selfish’ and a ‘coward’ who they did not believe ‘told the whole truth about what happened to Paul’.
Judge Neil Flewitt KC jailed him for two years and four months despite admitting the case left many unanswered questions around the death itself.
He said: “This is not a case where you committed this crime with the intention of preventing an investigation into the cause of an unnatural death.
“But it is an offence where the body has been deliberately concealed and, although the police were not actively misled, that concealment had the effect of leaving up in the air what had happened to Mr Smith in that period.
“This is not the less serious sort of case where there has been a passive failure to report the death.
“Aggravating factors include that this prompted a murder investigation, albeit one that was relatively short lived, with the inevitable drain on police resources and increased anxiety for Mr Smith’s family.
“It was an offence committed on licence at a time in your life when you should have been using the support offered to you and putting behind the offending that led you into prison.
“Instead, you have fallen back into drug taking. That, in turn, led to the commission of this offence.
“It is also an aggravating factor that you have an extensive criminal record, and not just for minor offences. There are some particularly serious offences.
“The mitigating factors are the fact this was a relatively short period of concealment and, after two days, you called the police and took them to where the body had been hidden.
“You are, I accept, genuinely remorseful, and you have made some, albeit limited, progress on recall.”