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Police in front of the Old Bailey Court: "Brutal murder of a harmless man"
Photo: HENRY NICHOLLS / REUTERS
In London, a homeless man has been sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison for murder.
The 59-year-old had killed a 50-year-old with a marble ashtray in December 1983.
However, he did not confess until July this year.
He killed him because he was annoyed by one of the man's comments.
The case was filed in 1985.
When he showed up at the Chiswick Police Station in late July, he started throwing stones at the windows.
Then he told an officer that he had murdered someone almost 40 years ago and said, "I would rather spend the last few years of my life in jail than sleep on the street," according to the BBC.
"Let the government check on me."
Cigarette butt convicts the perpetrator
Three days later, after being released on bail, the man retracted his confession and blamed an accomplice from a serious burglary in 1988 for the murder who killed himself in prison.
However, police matched the homeless person's DNA with that found on a cigarette butt in the victim's living room.
The Old Bailey Criminal Court in London sentenced the man to the long prison term.
The court argued that it was a terrible act of violence that had weighed on the perpetrator's conscience for decades.
The judge said, "This was a totally unjustified, brutal murder that resulted in the death of a harmless, respected and good-natured man who became friends with you."
kha / dpa