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Three prisoners have been charged with the murder of a convicted child killer in a high-security West Yorkshire prison.
Kyle Bevan, 33, was found dead in his cell in HMP Wakefield on Wednesday morning. He was two and a half years into a minimum sentence of 28 years for murdering his partner’s two-year-old daughter, Lola James, in the family home in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in 2020.
Wakefield is a category A prison, one of 10 in the UK with the highest security in place. West Yorkshire police said they were called to the prison at 8.25am on Wednesday after receiving reports that a man had been found dead in his cell.
Mark Fellows, 45, Lee Newell, 56, and David Taylor, 63, have been charged with Bevan’s murder. They all identify as white British men and were inmates at HMP Wakefield, the force said.
The three men appeared at Leeds magistrates court on Friday by video link. They were remanded into custody and are due to appear again at Leeds crown court on Monday.
Each defendant wore a grey tracksuit and Fellows and Newell spoke only to confirm their names, dates of birth and that they understood what had taken place.
Taylor was asked if he understood and said: “Absolutely not. I’m innocent.”
Last month a child sex offender, the former Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins, was stabbed to death at the same prison.
Watkins, from Pontypridd, was jailed for 29 years in December 2013, with a further six years on licence, after admitting to a string of sexual offences, including the attempted rape of a fan’s baby.
Two inmates, Rashid Gedel, 25, also known as Rico Gedel, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, have been charged with murdering Watkins and are due to face trial next May.
At Bevan’s sentencing in April 2023, the court heard that he had inflicted the sort of injuries usually seen in car crash victims or people who had fallen from a significant height. He had beaten his stepdaughter into a coma, a judge said.
Lola, described in court as a “happy, beautiful and busy little girl”, was found to have 101 external injuries, “catastrophic” head trauma and extensive damage to both her eyes.
The judge at Swansea crown court, Mr Justice Griffiths, said: “He [Bevan] started to hurt Lola at midnight and he carried on until she was unconscious at 6.30am. This was a sustained, deliberate and very violent attack.”
A recent inspectorate of prisons report into HMP Wakefield, published in September, found that “levels of violence had increased and many prisoners did not feel safe”.
It added: “There were too few places in work and education activities and the regime was not managed effectively; around half the population was locked up during the working day. The prison’s infrastructure had declined and required investment; security, living conditions and the functioning of workshops were all affected.”
