A FROME man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to assisting a murderer after he killed a teenager in Radstock.

Jack Seal, 20, pleaded guilty to assisting Joshua Delbono after he stabbed 16-year-old Charley Bates in a car park in The Street on Sunday, July 31, 2022.

In April 2023, Delbono was handed a life sentence. He will serve a minimum of 21 years.

CCTV footage showed Seal travelling in a Citroen to the car park in the centre of Radstock, with Delbono travelling with his then-girlfriend Lauren Ephgrave, 21, of Melksham, in the seat behind.

After the stabbing, the trio fled the scene and headed to Shearwater Lake, near Warminster, where Delbono threw the knife into the lake.

It was whilst they were fleeing that they learned of Charley's death.

Photos taken by Ephgrave show clothes being burned in an attempt to dispose of vital evidence.

Both Seal and Ephgrave pleaded guilty to assisting an offender and were sentenced by Judge William Hart at Bristol Crown Court today (Friday, March 1).

A third person had been charged with the same offence, but was found not guilty in November 2023.

Ephgrave received a 10-month custodial sentence suspended for 18 months and must engage in 20 days’ rehabilitation activity.

Seal was sentenced to 15 months in prison, again suspended for 18 months, and must engage in 140 hours of unpaid work within the next 12 months.

Presiding Judge Hart said that Ephgrave and Seal chose to help Delbono instead of a critically injured teenager.

Detective inspector Mark Newbury, of the Major Crime Investigation Team, said: “Charley’s tragic death caused a huge amount of shock in Radstock. The outpouring of public grief that followed showed his popularity and how much he is missed by family and friends.

“Today’s hearing brings to a conclusion a significant police investigation that has ensured that not only a dangerous murderer is behind bars, but now has seen two people who helped him on that fateful day receive criminal records too.

“Assisting an offender is an incredibly serious offence and it is not one we will ever take lightly.”