UK NEWS
STUDENT'S MURDERER JAILED FOR LIFE
A teenage thug was jailed for life for a "brutal and senseless" stabbing that left one student dead and another badly injured.
Two others involved in the unprovoked attack - captured in "chilling" detail on CCTV - were given indeterminate sentences and told they would each have to remain behind bars for a minimum of five years.
Their 20 seconds of "utterly pointless" violence saw Daniel Pollen, 20, first dazed by a blow that shattered his jaw, and then knifed in the heart.
Although the wound was just 5cm (2ins) deep, the second-year Southampton University medical student bled profusely and died within seconds.
His best friend, Andrew Griffiths, who had been celebrating his 20th birthday, was also stabbed and left in a pool of blood but fortunately survived, London's Woolwich Crown Court was told.
In addition the young man - studying medicine at Durham University - had his jaw broken as well and his mobile phone stolen.
Leaving their victims slumped on the ground next to some bicycle railings in the Brewery Shopping Centre car park, Romford, Essex, the crop-haired trio then fled in a nearby car.
In the dock was 17-year-old father of two Michael Lynch, of Mandrake Way, Stratford, east London.
Although he was a juvenile and just 16 at the time of the attack on July 8 last year, Judge Shirley Anwyl QC said the murder of one of the students and the intentional wounding of the other, which he had admitted, were so serious that the anonymity he had enjoyed so far should be lifted.
Next to him were decorators Timmy Sullivan, 19, from Barking, Essex and Michael Onokah, 25, of Ilford, East London. They were acquitted of murder after a three-week trial last month, but convicted of causing the student who died grievous bodily harm with intent and intentionally wounding their other victim.
