LONDON: A 21-year-old youth has been sentenced to life for murdering a 66-year-old Sri Lankan on the outskirts of London in April this year.
Idris Jualim was found guilty of murdering Arulanatham Jayasundarakumar following a week-long trial in the Crown Criminal Court here.
Jualim, who had previously pleaded guilty to robbery of a woman in her mid-30s, was handed over a life term with a recommendation he serves a minimum of three years.
He was also jailed for 12 months in a case of fraud.
In the murder case, he was sentenced to serve a minimum of 22 years and both sentences are to run concurrently with the term for murder.
Deputy Crime Inspector Mick Broster of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command said, "Jualim's motive was to rob and in court he claimed he had a crack habit he needed to feed but we have no evidence of this."
Police were called shortly on April 2 to reports of a man stabbed inside the Jena convenience store in Ilford. The victim, Jayasundarakumar, who helped out at the store in the evenings, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A post mortem at East Ham mortuary gave cause of death as a single stab wound to the stomach.
The court heard that Jualim had entered the shop and approached the shopkeeper. When Jayasundarakumar intervened, he was stabbed in the stomach.
Jualim fled empty handed from the crime scene but an hour later robbed a woman in her mid-30s in Prospect Road, Woodford.
He stabbed her twice and stole her handbag. The victim was lucky to recover from her injuries.
The following day Jualim tried to cash a cheque for 500 pounds in Dagenham using the stolen cheque book.
He was arrested after handing himself into Barkingside police station and subsequently charged.
