Abattoir workers who mutilated victims are found guilty of murder

Abattoir workers who tortured and mutilated victims like ‘butchered pigs’ before ‘laying out’ their remains in a ‘macabre’ display are found guilty of murder

• WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
• Ionut-Valentin Boboc, 22, and Jacob-Bebe Chers, 46, stand convicted of murder
• The bodies of Denzil McKenzie and Fahad Hossain Pramanik were found tortured
• Boboc and Chers both worked in an abattoir and brutalised their victims’ bodies
• The pair are due to be sentenced on December 21 at Bristol Crown Court

A pair of former abattoir workers who stabbed and butchered two men in Bristol have been found guilty of their murders.  

Jacob-Bebe Chers, 46, and Ionut-Valentin Boboc, 22, tricked their way into the home of former workmate Denzil McKenzie, 56, who was with visitor Fahad Hossain Pramanik, 27. 

The Crown said over the course of three hours the defendants brutally stabbed both men in Mr McKenzie’s sitting room. Mr McKenzie had been stabbed 23 times, Mr Pramanik three times, 

Their butchered remains were then ‘laid up’ in a ‘macabre’ display, the jury were told.

But as their bodies lay undiscovered in a ‘house of horrors’, the prosecution argued both defendants then went on to dispose evidence and tried to cover up their tracks.

Ionut-Valentin Boboc (left), 21, and Jacob-Bebe Chers (right), 45, were found guilty of the murders of Denzil McKenzie and Fahad Hossain Pramanik

Bristol Crown Court heard 21-year-old Boboc (pictured) regularly borrowed money from victim Mr McKenzie, 56, sometimes in return for sexual favours, and ‘tricked’ his way in on the night of the killings

They were found guilty of murder by a jury today after a three week trial at Bristol Crown Court and will be sentenced on December 21.

A jury heard that on the evening of September 11 last year, the two defendants, who are both Romanian nationals, visited the home of Mr McKenzie in Easton in Bristol.

Boboc had regularly borrowed money from Mr McKenzie sometimes in return for sexual favours, and the prosecution say he ‘tricked’ his way in on the night of the killings.

The second victim Mr Pramanik was simply in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time’, the jury heard.

While inside, prosecutor Kevin Dent KC said the defendants ‘jointly’ inflicted multiple stab wounds.

Mr McKenzie had 23 knife wounds – the most serious of these to his neck – while Mr Pramanik was stabbed at least three times in the back and abdomen.

There was evidence both also been tortured, Mr Dent told the jury.

He told the court: ‘They left behind them a scene of horror, the dead and mutilated bodies of Denzil McKenzie and Fahad Pramanik were left in the sitting room.’

Mr Dent said the victims had been stabbed repeatedly while defending themselves from the attack.

Fahad Hossain Pramanik (pictured) was unknown to the two defendants, and is thought to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time 

And he said both bodies were ‘further mutilated’ after their deaths.

He added: ‘Mr McKenzie’s thigh had been cut open, and Mr Pramanik’s body had been slashed across his stomach.

‘The bodies had been arranged in a macabre display. One body was on the sofa and the other on the floor.’

The trial also heard the duo went to great lengths to cover up the killings.

This included clearing up the scene while they were also caught on CCTV trying to dump evidence.

In one clip, Chers can be seen driving his black Alfa Romeo car onto a grassy verge, before emptying it of items and putting them in a nearby bin. In another clip, Boboc was also seen taking ‘items’ from a car and depositing them in a bin.

The jury also heard a call from Boboc’s aunt Maria to police the day after the killings.

In a later police interview and told cops she had called 999 as her nephew had come to her home ‘drunk, scared and bloodstained’ and said he had killed something.

She also told cops she laughed as she thought it was a joke.

But she said she later discovered two people had been killed and that from her understanding Boboc and Chers had ‘killed one each’.

She said Boboc claimed the man he killed had wanted to sexually abuse him.

The pair are accused of torturing and stabbing two victims to death on Wood Street (pictured) in Easton, Bristol

The court heard that Boboc, who at the time was 21 and his co-defendant, aged 45 at the time, were friends who worked together at an abattoir just outside of Bristol on the production line.

Part of their job was cutting pigs open and making a long incision line down the stomach and then taking out the pig’s intestine.

During the trial, the jury was also shown CCTV footage of Boboc and Chers walking towards the address at 8.30pm on the night of the killings, and then coming back the same way at around 11pm.

Footage of them leaving after the murders, showed them carrying large items including audio equipment and amplifiers among other valuables such as jewellery they had stolen while inside.

The trial heard the two defendants were friends and met up on the evening of Saturday, September 11 2021.

Mr Dent said that after spending a couple of hours together, they went to the house of a man they both knew, Denzil McKenzie.

Messages recovered by the police showed Boboc had ‘repeatedly’ borrowed money from Mr McKenzie, sometimes in return for sexual favours.

Mr Dent added: ‘We don’t know what brought Mr Pramanik to visit and it appears a terrible coincidence that he was at Mr McKenzie’s house on the day these two defendants arrived;.

‘Mr Pramanik really was in the wrong place at the wrong time and there is nothing to suggest he knew either of the defendants before he met them.

‘The biggest insight into their relationship with Mr McKenzie comes from phone evidence.

‘He (Bobic) was repeatedly asking for money and agreeing to sexual services (in exchange) but expressing he felt conflicted about this and making threats of violence to Mr McKenzie.’

On the night of the killings Boboc had messaged Mr McKenzie inviting himself over to his house.

Mr Dent added: ‘He said ‘I want to come to you to say goodbye and have a drink. We stay ten minutes and after I leave I want to say goodbye to you – and I want to give you something.’

‘We say he tricked his way into Mr McKenzie’s house through these messages.’

Boboc, of Hillfields, Bristol, had admitted the murder of Mr McKenzie but denied killing Mr Pramanik, while Chers, also of Hillfields, had denied both murders.

After the verdicts were read out, the Honorable Mrs Justice Cutts said: ‘I am not going to sentence you today – but on 21 December. You must understand after the jury verdict the sentence I must impose is one of life imprisonment.

‘I must determine in the case of each of you, the minimum term you must serve before being eligible for parole. That is the decision I will make on 21 December. Meanwhile you will remain in custody.’

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