JOIN USAnuj Bidve killer gets life term
An unrepentant Kiaran “Psycho” Stapleton was on Friday sentenced to a minimum 30 years in jail for the cold-blooded killing of 23-year-old Indian student Anuj Bidve that caused outrage in India and the UK.
Stapleton entered the Manchester Crown Court smiling and beamed again towards a member of the Bidve family as he was led away after the sentencing.
The 21-year-old Briton, who was on Thursday found guilty of murdering Bidve on December 26, has been jailed for a minimum of 30 years before being considered for parole, following a five-week trial.
Judge Timothy King told Stapleton, who showed no emotion: “Only then will you be released if you are deemed not to be a risk to the public.”
King added: “In my judgment, this was no impulsive act on your part. It was a piece of cold-blooded controlled aggression.”
He said Stapleton had showed a “most callous disregard” in laughing and smirking after he gunned down Bidve and also during the trial.
“You have behaved in a way demonstrating that you are positively boastful about having killed Bidve,” he said.
The judge said Stapleton — who in his first court appearance told magistrates his name was “Psycho Stapleton” — had committed a “truly wicked act” and was a “highly dangerous man” who posed a high risk of serious harm to other people.
After the jury’s “guilty” verdict, Bidve’s parents Subhash and Yogini Bidve, who attended the trial, went back to the scene of crime, prayed and placed a bouquet of flowers.
Shubhash Bidve said Stapleton had “openly laughed at the memory of our son”, and that he believed Stapleton should never be released from prison.
Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West Area, said: “Anuj Bidve’s murder in the early hours of Boxing Day last year was a terrible crime which shocked and appalled us all. It is all the more tragic because it was completely senseless”.
He said Anuj had his whole life ahead of him and was young and bright, a talented student who was enjoying his time at Lancaster University.
“Since the moment that he (Kiaran Stapleton) killed Anuj, and throughout this trial, he has shown no trace of remorse and no concern for the pain his family are going through. Two days after the murder, he even went to a tattoo shop and got a teardrop tattoo. It was a sign we say that he was boasting about the murder, that he thought it gave him some sort of notoriety,” he said.
Soon after the verdict, Bidve’s parents said their son had come to the UK in September 2011 and he carried with him the “hopes and dreams of all our family”.
“Instead, in the early hours of Boxing Day morning, Stapleton, cold bloodedly and brutally murdered our son. Stapleton had never met our son and did not know anything about him,” they had said in a statement.
Detective Chief Superintendent Mary Doyle said: “Anuj’s family have got the verdict they deserved. I have spoken to the family and while they remain grief stricken that nothing can bring Anuj back, they are very pleased Stapleton will not even be eligible for parole until he is in his fifties”.