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London: Two brothers, convicted of murdering a man whom they ran over and dragged 40 metres along a road after he caught them trying to steal his van radio, were on Thursday jailed for llife.
Albert Willett, 26, and his brother Tommy, 24, of Stratford, east London, had tried to steal the radio to fund their heroin habit.
But they were spotted by Balbir Matharu, a father-of-two from east London, who tried to prevent them driving off by banging his hands on the bonnet of their Ford Mondeo car.
Matharu, a 54-year-old driver for a local builders' merchant, was dragged along the street. His body was found by his wife, but he died shortly afterwards from his injuries.
Youth charged
Judge Christopher Moss said the brothers' crime was "beneath contempt", ordering Albert Willett to serve a minimum of 27 years and his brother Tommy, 25 years before they would be eligible for release. "Your victim was a decent, hardworking, upstanding family man, who made the fatal mistake of standing up to the likes of you. For the sake of escape you callously drove over him as he stood his ground in front of the car," Moss said.
A 19-year-old man is standing trial charged with murdering Jimmy Mizen, a teenager who died in an unprovoked attack at a London baker's shop.
Jake Fahri is accused of killing Mizen after he slashed his throat in The Three Cooks in Lee, southeast London, on Saturday, a day after his 16th birthday.
Knife crime
Fahri, from Lee, was due before Sutton Magistrates Court later yesterday, Scotland Yard said in a statement. Mizen bled to death in the arms of his older brother after his throat had been slashed by glass.
Meanwhile, an east London teenager was charged yesterday with stabbing a man to death in Oxford Street this week.
Anthony Costa, 18, is accused of murdering Steven Bigby, 22, outside a McDonald's restaurant near Oxford Circus tube station during the evening rush hour on Monday. Police said Bigby was stabbed after an argument broke out between two groups of men in one of the capital's busiest shopping areas.
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