Killer licked victim's blood

A murderer who licked the blood of his victim from his hands while saying "I love claret" was jailed for life at the Old Bailey today.

Jason Grant screamed "scum" at the jury as he was led to the cells after he was sentenced for the stabbing of accountant Naresh Shah 13 times in a case of mistaken identity.

The court had heard Grant, 22, was part of "an organised raiding party" of bouncers who had gone to the wrong house to hand out a beating in revenge for a dispute in a bar.

The gang intended to attack another man, Xhapher Ismaili, over an alleged insult to one of their girlfriends. But they got the wrong address in Hounslow and killed Mr Shah, who had nothing to do with the dispute, in March last year.

Today Grant, smiling broadly, was told by Judge Graham Boal: "Nobody who heard the evidence will ever forget the description of you after you had murdered that man licking the blood from your hands and saying how you loved claret.

"Another witness described how you admitted this killing with relish adding that whereas you used to get a thrill out of knocking f*** out of people you now had the taste for blood."

Mr Shah, 45, was described as "kind and gentle, intelligent and successful". He died after the intended victim Mr Ismaili had been thrown out of the Yates' Wine Lodge in Hounslow where the bouncers had worked.

Two days later the gang visited his address where they had been mistakenly told Mr Ismaili lived. In fact he had moved out months earlier and it was Mr Shah who was stabbed.

Outside court the victim's brother Atul Shah described Grant as "evil".

"Last week was one year since my brother's brutal and senseless murder at the hands of these people," he added. "My brother was a kind a gentle person. I can only hope that they realise what they have done.

"I left my brother's house just five minutes before this murder and if I had not my mother would now be mourning two dead sons."

Grant, of Hounslow, was also received 10 years for conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm to Mr Ismaili.

Of the rest of the gang, Mark Young, 33, of Uxbridge was jailed for eight years, Paul Hilton, 23, of Clactonon-Sea, Essex, received six years and Young's former girlfriend, mother-of-two Samantha Easton, 25, of Hanworth, was sentenced to two years after they were found guilty of conspiracy to cause GBH. Three others were cleared of all charges.

The judge paid tribute to the Shahs for their "dignity" during the trial.