Solicitor killers get life sentences
Tuesday, 28 Nov 2006 20:05
Donnel Carty and Delano Brown received their sentences at the Old Bailey
The two men convicted of killing London solicitor Thomas ap Rhys Price have today been sentenced to life in jail.
Donnel Carty, 19, of Burrows Road, north London, and his 18-year-old friend Delano Brown, of Rosebank Avenue, Sudbury Hill, were found guilty of the 31-year-old's murder at the Old Bailey yesterday.
Today, Carty was told he would serve at least 21 years in jail, while Brown was given a minimum tariff of 17 years.
Mr Ap Rhys Pryce died on January 13th 2006 from stab wounds to his chest sustained when the two men mugged him as he made his way home late in the evening on the previous day.
The 31-year-old was returning from a social function when he called his fiancee at about 23:00 GMT to let her know he was on his way home and would be back at 23:30 GMT.
CCTV footage from Kensal Green London Underground station shows the Linklaters lawyer passing through the ticket barriers at 23:22, but eight minutes later he was attacked by Delano and Carty, who stole his mobile phone, Oyster card and £20 cash, stabbing him twice as he resisted.
A witness to the attack called the emergency services but Mr Ap Rhys Price was declared dead at Central Middlesex hospital in the early hours of the morning.
In a victim impact statement read out on her behalf today, Adele Eastman, 32, spoke of the way her future plans were destroyed when she heard about her fiance's death.
"In a matter of seconds wedding plans and a future together had changed to funeral plans and a lifetime apart," she said.
Carty and Brown were charged with his murder six days after the stabbing after officers used a combination of CCTV footage, mobile phone records and DNA to track them down.
The jury at the Old Bailey heard how Delano and Carty used their victim's Oyster card at Kensal Green station the day after the murder and both used his mobile phone to call their girlfriends 15 minutes after the attack itself.
Speaking after today's sentencing, John ap Rhys Price spoke of the effect that his son's death had had on his family.
"Sadly nothing can bring Tom back to us but we are pleased and grateful that justice has been done," Mr Ap Rhys Price said in a family statement.
He added that the "callous and senseless" murder had "devastated" the lives of his son's family, fiancée and friends.
"We hope the sentences…will send a message to other youths who habitually carry knives," he added. "As Rio Ferdinand said yesterday [as part of a campaign to mark the sixth anniversary of the fatal stabbing of London schoolboy Damilola Taylor] knives are not cool."