Steven Wales reported the death of father-of-five Paul Smith to police, two days after the 40-year-old is believed to have overdosed in a bath12:58, 26 Aug 2026Updated 13:19, 26 Aug 2026A man who dumped the body of a dad in a wheelie bin was branded a "scumbag" in court as he was jailed today.‌Steven Wales, 61, reported the death of father-of-five Paul Smith two days after the 40-year-old is believed to have overdosed in a bath. The report was made on July 22 last year, when Wales, of Pope Street in Bootle, Merseyside, called the police to say Smith “had died in the bath”.‌Once at the scene, officers found the dad’s body in a binin an overgrown garden outside a derelict house on Thirlmere Road in Everton. The discovery was made a week after Smith had carried out a revenge arson attack that turned fatal on South John Street in St Helens, killing an elderly couple.‌Wales allegedly “panicked” when he found his friend dead, while Wales was on licence out of prison. This supposedly led to his decision to "violate the most fundamental of dignities to be afforded to someone" and leave his friend’s body in the bin.Wales told officers he had moved Smith's body to a wheelie bin in a nearby overgrown garden, where attempts were made to conceal the body under litter, green waste and furniture. When he was arrested on suspicion of murder, Wales told officers that Smith had asked to use his flat to bathe and wash his clothes.‌When Wales returned home, he said he found his friend dead in the bath and "was worried about going back to prison", leading to him placing the body in the bin.When he was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court today, Smith’s brother shouted “you little scumbag” from the public gallery while Wales was taken to the cells.Wearing glasses and a black and grey Berghaus coat over a black Monterrain t-shirt in the dock, Wales showed no reaction as he was jailed for 28 months, Liverpool Echo reports.‌Smith, who had been a "working family man" but developed a class A drug dependency in late 2024, led a "chaotic lifestyle" after he was released from prison, the court heard.Christopher Hopkins, prosecuting, said: "It appears that he was with this defendant at the defendant's home on the weekend of July 19 and 20 last year. At some point, they had taken drugs together.‌"Mr Smith's mother spoke to him daily. She last spoke to him in the late afternoon of Saturday, July 19. His brother reported him missing on Monday evening. It was at 9.22am the next morning that the defendant dialled 999 and reported that a man had died of a drug overdose in his bath two days previously."Mr Hopkins added: "[Wales] has violated the most fundamental of dignities to be afforded to someone. His actions were deeply disrespectful."A trial earlier this year was told Eric Greener, 77, and Sheila Jackson, 83, died following an arson attack at their home on July 15, 2025. The proceedings were told the man who carried out the attack was Smith.‌Kevin Weetman, Kylie Maynard and Lee Owens were all convicted. Smith, known as Smigger, and Owens went to the property together and intended for the victim of the attack to be Ms Jackson’s son, George Jackson, who sometimes lived at the house.Weetman was said to have planned the attack after Mr Jackson refused to sell drugs for him. Weetman was jailed for life with a minimum of 25 years, while "trusted lieutenant" Maynard was jailed for 23 years and Owens was sentenced to 13 years and six months.Smith had been reported missing on July 21 by his brother, Michael, having last contacted a family member on July 19. The father, who lived on Lower Breck Road, was said to have spent July 20 at a house on Coniston Street in Everton, where he took a range of drugs such as heroin, cocaine and several sedatives.‌An inquest in July this year was told Smith is then believed to have overdosed in the bath, with water being found in his lungs. Smith's medical cause of death was given as mixed drug toxicity.Wales pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of Smith when he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court earlier this month. He has a total of 32 previous convictions for 64 offences, including receiving eight years for manslaughter in 2009 and five years for possession of heroin and cocaine with intent to supply, affray, possession of a bladed article in a public place and being in charge of a dangerous out of control dog causing injury in 2023.He was recalled on licence for nine months in relation to the latter sentence as a result of his arrest in connection with Smith's death, having been released in October 2024.‌Joanne Maxwell, defending, said that when Wales returned home, he found Smith with a needle close by. He felt "immediate, significant shock" and "clearly did not think properly, he panicked".He had taken cocaine and diazepam and was fearful of going back to prison. Ms Maxwell said: "He knows that he should have contacted the emergency services immediately, and certainly before he moved Mr Smith's body."He has accepted full responsibility for his actions, and he is only too aware of the seriousness of those actions. He feels great shame, and he is, of course, aware of the impact it must have had and the distress he has caused to Mr Smith's family.Article continues below"He also says that, by carrying out those actions, it has had a significant and lasting psychological impact on him and is something that will live with him for the rest of his life. He asks me to mitigate on his behalf that he did not cause or play any role in the death of Mr Smith."Sentencing, Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: "Although the cause of his death has been established as mixed drug toxicity, the precise circumstances of his death are uncertain. The information available to me is entirely dependent on your account, which raises as many questions as it answers, not least how a 61-year-old man with COPD was able to move that body from the bath and the flat into a wheelie bin to a location where it was concealed."I suspect there are all sorts of reasons why you do not want to answer that question. That and other unanswered questions add to the distress of Mr Smith's family. That is the only basis on which I can sentence you, because I have no other independent evidence of what actually happened."