UPDATE: Addy McAllister and Jemma Price convicted of murder of Dunstable man Adam Fanelli

Adam Fanelli, from Dunstable, died from a savage beating inflicted on him by the pair.

He was overpowered and held while blows reigned down on his head and body.

Today at Luton crown court, Addy McAllister and Jemma Price were found guilty by a jury of murdering 31 year old Adam in the early hours of March 17 this yea, St Patrick’s Day.

Both men, who between them have 10 children, had blamed the other for inflicting the injuries on Adam. Both said they had tried to stop the fight.

During the trial, the court was told that Adam had been a family man who, just a few weeks before his death, “went off the rails” and began taking drugs.

His wife was expecting their third child, but Adam briefly left home.

Just hours before he died, he told his family he was going on one last bender before returning home to his wife Jess, 28, and their children.

That night he took cocaine with father of five McAllister, 34 and Price, 30, who also has five children. In addition, all were drinking.

They ended up on the Nash Park Travellers site in Winslow Road in the village of Nash near Milton Keynes, where Price and McAllister lived at the time with their families.

There, in Adam’s van, a violent row broke out.

Outside, Adam was beaten to death by the pair.

His lifeless body was found in a field adjoining the site the next day.

A pathologist who examined his body found Adam had suffered head and facial injuries which caused his death.

But his body was covered in bruises and injuries, it was claimed. In all, he had 159 separate injuries inflicted on him by McAllister and Price.

They included finger tip bruise marks to his arms which suggested that at one point one of his attackers had held Adam while the other beat him.

McAllister, of Charlesworth Street, Bolsover in Derbyshire and Price, of Ridgeway, Kensworth, near Dunstable., were found guilty of the charge of murdering Adam.

Just two days before his death and after Adam had left home, the defendants turned up at his home in Dunstable looking for him.

They managed to speak to him on a mobile phone and his partner heard Price telling Adam they would burn his home down.

McAllister warned her not to say anything about their visit.

The following evening Mr Fanelli was with McAllister and Price and arranged for all three of them to get some cocaine in Luton.

The following morning his body was discovered lying face down in a field beside the travellers site.

Both McAllister and Price blamed each other, telling the jury they had played no part in the violence that night and had tried to stop the fight.

Mrs Ann Evans, prosecuting, told the jury “At the very least one of these explanations is a lie and the crown invite you to conclude that as Adam Fanelli was a well built man who weighed just under 15 stone and was five foot ten tall, the fatal injuries he suffered were not as a result of a fight between two equals.”

She said when they were arrested, neither defendant had any significant injuries of any sort.

“You may think it is inconceivable that one man alone could have inflicted over 150 injuries on Mr Fanelli and remain unscathed. Without doubt it would have taken two men to inflict such damage on this well built man.”

Mr Fanelli’s partner Jess Slade, 28, told the jury how, a month after Adam’s death, she gave birth to their daughter.