A teenager has been stabbed to death outside a row of £1million homes - the 21st to be killed in London this year
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'Scumbags' who ran over father jailed for 25 years
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent15.05.08
Two brothers condemned as "scumbags and total low life" by police were jailed for a minimum of 25 and 27 years each at the Old Bailey today.
Albert, 26, and Tommy Willett, 24, were convicted of murdering a father of two for a car radio worth £5 to them.
They mowed down victim Balbir Matharu, 54 and dragged him 40 yards before running him over and leaving him to die in the road.
His daughter Baljinder, 30, later spoke of how the family's hopes and dreams had been ripped away from them.
Jailing them for life, Judge Christopher Moss said the murder was "beneath contempt." He added: "You are career criminals and drug addicts who made little or no contribution to society and have taken a great deal from it.
"For the sake of escaping from the consequences of an attempted theft you callously drove over him as he stood his ground in front of your car. Neither of you had the guts to admit your part in this dreadful event - you lied, lied and lied again."
Mr Matharu's wife of 30 years Sukhvinder, 54, who worked in the nearby family double glazing business, ran to tend to her stricken husband. Miss Matharu said: "When I went out my mum was in an awful state. He kept saying that he was in pain and I will always remember him asking for his inhaler because he was an asthmatic and he was having trouble breathing.
"I crouched down and held his hand and prayed that he would be OK. At that stage because there was no blood, we didn't realise how serious it was. Nothing will bring him back. I still see my mother crying at his photo."
Detective Chief Inspector John Macdonald said the brothers, formerly of the Clay's Lane travellers camp which has since been demolished to make way for Olympic development, were "total low life" and "scumbags".
Mr Matharu had been working in a builders' yard in Leytonstone Road, Stratford, in January 2006 when he saw his Mercedes van being broken into and rushed into the road to try to prevent the thieves escaping.
Witnesses heard breaking glass and him shouting: "Don't do that, don't do that." But the heroin and crack-addicted brothers were determined to make off with the £70 radio, which "no doubt, would have been sold in a pub for a fiver", the court heard. As he died of his injuries in Newham General Hospital, the brothers took their getaway car to be scrapped.
At the time Albert Willett, who admitted driving the car, was on probation after being released from Pentonville prison on a drug rehabilitation programme. He is currently serving a nineyear sentence for the knife robbery of an elderly man and attempting to smuggle class-A drugs into Pentonville prison.
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They look just like they have crawled out from under a rock!
- Eastender., Hempstead
That is not a harsh sentence, they totally deserve it. These people and I use that term loosely, should never be out on the street again.
- Kane, Sittingbourne,Kent, UK
Let's hope they feel remorse.
- Martin, Clapton E5, Hackney
