Murder by the Sea: David Ellis

The CBS Reality series continued to rake through the dark side of our seaside towns this week. This time it was the sad case of Swansea landlord Alec Warburton, who was murdered by his callous tenant, David Ellis.

Ellis had a number of grubby convictions behind him, including sexual offences against a girl. He was also a liar and seems to have lied about his financial situation to convince Mr Warburton to rent a room to him.

Swansea is a pretty safe community, so what ensued shocked the locals. Ellis plotted to kill Warburton, who was 59, having arranged for the other tenants to forward their rent to him, Ellis.

He then launched a horrendous hammer attack on the unsuspecting landlord. As Home Office pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers says in the programme, there were no defence injuries on Mr Warburton. Ellis’s attack was a cowardly assault from behind.

Ellis fled to Ireland

Ellis was no master criminal. He was captured on CCTV at a Swansea library printing the letter he forged to other tenants requesting the rent. He was also filmed by traffic cameras as he transported Mr Warburton’s body to a quarry in north Wales for disposal.

The Irish police caught him after he fled to Galway on the west coast of Ireland. Oddly enough, he immediately crumpled and confessed to police.

Once again, Murder by the Sea has lined up interesting experts for this edition, with Prof Mike Berry again giving valuable insights into Ellis’s criminality.

Ellis was 41 when he was sentenced to a minimum of 26 years in 2016. His appalling crime was easily uncovered, while Mr Warburton’s loved ones have to live with the grief of his loss for ever.

And for what? After the murder, Ellis probably made off with a few hundred quid.

Murder by the Sea is on CBS Reality on Tuesdays 10pm