Man gets life for bus stop murder of neighbour

Anthony Turner, 42, plunged a knife into the back of Michael Mann then repeatedly lied to the police to try to avoid justice, the Old Bailey was told.

Mr Mann, 43, and his partner Natasha Enebi had suffered a campaign of harassment by Turner and his girlfriend Kate Hughes who lived in the flat above them in Willesden. In May last year Turner threatened to beat Ms Enebi with a baseball bat and kill her.

When she and Mr Mann served a court order on him banning him from further harassment he took a kitchen knife for revenge "the street way".

In a fury, he followed them as they wheeled their six-month-old son Jamali in his pushchair towards Willesden High Road to catch a bus. The defendant's black Peugeot car was captured by CCTV cameras "literally stalking" Mr Mann all the way from their flat.

At the bus stop Turner stabbed Mr Mann, who suffered a 19cm-deep wound and died where he fell in the street.

After his arrest Turner claimed he had used a screwdriver, not a knife, and acted only to protect Hughes, who had recently undergone surgery for a brain tumour, as he was petrified that she would be hurt in the struggle.

The jury convicted Turner of murder but found Hughes not guilty of the same charge after she said she had had no idea that Turner had a weapon or that anybody had been stabbed.

Jailing Turner for life, Judge Peter Thornton QC said: "This was a ruthless, calculated stabbing, planned by you, probably at short notice, when you were fully aware of what you were doing and the consequences.

"Your excuses to the police and in evidence were pathetic attempts to avoid justice for what you had done."

The judge added: "Mr Mann was a family man, a father of a young child and you have taken from that child his father and from Miss Enebi her partner. It is a tragic loss to them and his friends and relations. You ruthlessly stabbed him in the back as he edged away giving him no chance to defend himself."

Turner later conceded to police that the fatal wound had been caused by a knife but it has never been found.