Pendine caravan murder: Steven Baxter guilty of stabbing

Simon Clark was found dead at his residential caravan

A man has been found guilty of murdering his neighbour who was stabbed to death during a caravan park fight.

Simon Clark's body was found at his caravan in Grove Caravan Park, Pendine, Carmarthenshire, on 28 September 2018 after being left "to die where he fell".

Steven Baxter, 52, went on the run with Jeffrey Ward, 40, but both were caught and charged with murder.

Baxter was convicted by majority verdict but Jeffrey Ward was cleared.

He will be sentenced on Tuesday, alongside Mr Ward's partner Julie Harris, who pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing.

The trial at Swansea Crown Court heard Baxter had stabbed Mr Clark, 54, in the chest.

The court had heard all three men, who were neighbours at the park, had been involved in growing cannabis, with many people at the holiday site smoking the drug.

Steve Baxter was arrested more than a month after the incident

Prosecutor Paul Lewis said: "Both attacked Mr Clark. But it was Steven Baxter who then inflicted the fatal wound upon him during the attack."

Jurors were told the victim's body was found by a friend in the doorway of his caravan the following day after he had been stabbed in the chest with a knife.

Mr Lewis said he was still clutching a metal pole, which could have been used in a fight, with him left to "die where he fell".

He said a post-mortem examination suggested Mr Clark suffered injuries to his left arm and hand "consistent with defence wounds" before his death.

The court previously heard Baxter had evaded police for a month before he was spotted living in a tent on a remote section of Marros beach, two miles from the caravan park in Pendine.

He said he was able to survive his time in hiding by living between the tent and a cave and had survived largely on foraged seaweed and mussels as well as catching the occasional fish.

Steve Baxter donned a disguise of a dark-coloured wig while on the run