A father and son convicted of murdering a thief in a vigilante killing in Bury St Edmunds will be sentenced next month.

David King, 55, and Edward King, 20, hunted down 45-year-old Neil Charles and stabbed him in the chest around 70 metres from their home after he tried the door handles of cars parked on their driveway.

The duo, of Radnor Close, were unanimously found guilty of murder by a jury at Ipswich Crown Court in May last year. They had both denied the charge.

East Anglian Daily Times: Neil CharlesNeil Charles (Image: Suffolk police/Supplied by the family)

At a hearing on Monday, March 6, judge Martyn Levett adjourned sentence on the pair until April 24 to allow a pre-sentence report to be prepared on Edward King.

During the trial, which started in March last year, prosecutor Christopher Paxton QC claimed that the father and son delivered their "own form of justice" on Mr Charles in the early hours of the morning of June 20 last year.

Mr Charles suffered a 12cm single stab wound to the chest and a slash wound to his knee and died two days later.

East Anglian Daily Times: A forensics officer takes photographs of a bike that the police had covered up in Winsford Road in Bury St Edmunds.A forensics officer takes photographs of a bike that the police had covered up in Winsford Road in Bury St Edmunds. (Image: Archant)

Mr Paxton said Mr Charles had a "long career" as a thief and burglar and the prosecution accepted he was out that night stealing or looking to steal.

He claimed the defendants had an "obsession" with weapons and at their home had knives, knuckledusters, machetes, and shotguns - which David King had licences for as a registered firearms holder.

During the trial, David King claimed that Mr Charles suffered the fatal knife wound to his chest after running onto a military knife he was holding in his outstretched hand in Winsford Road on the town’s Moreton Hall estate.

East Anglian Daily Times: The attack happened around 70 metres from David and Edward King's Radnor Close home.The attack happened around 70 metres from David and Edward King's Radnor Close home. (Image: Archant)

He claimed he had pulled the knife out of his pocket after Mr Charles threw his bike at him and seeing Mr Charles’ hand hovering near his pocket.

He admitted failing to mention in a 999 call shortly after the incident that his son Edward had left their house with a 27 inch Ninja sword on the night in question and said he wanted to leave his son out of it as he hadn’t been present when Mr Charles suffered the fatal wound.

Edward King chose not to give evidence during the trial.