‘Psycho’ killer guilty of student’s random gun murder

Kiaran Stapleton walked up to stranger Anuj Bidve, 23, in the street in Salford, Greater Manchester, and shot him in the head at point blank range.

While on remand in Strangeways Prison, Manchester, Stapleton attacked a fellow killer, Michael Sharp, 28, of Ossett, near Wakefield, in a prison ritual known as a “jugging”.

Stapleton, 21 had admitted manslaughter of Mr Bidve on the grounds of diminished responsibility but a jury at Manchester Crown Court rejected that argument and convicted him of murder.

Before the verdict was announced, Stapleton, wearing a grey Adidas tracksuit, jogged up the steps to the dock from the cells.

He looked around the courtroom and grinned before the jury foreman stood up.

Mr Bidve had arrived in the UK last September to embark on postgraduate studies in micro-electronics at Lancaster University. The institution has announced it is launching the annual Anuj Bidve Memorial Scholarship in his honour

While he was awaiting trial, Stapleton attacked Sharp in prison.

Sharp is serving life for the gruesome murder of a car dealer in Wakefield.

Stapleton poured a bucket full of hot water over Sharp’s head as he played chess. Sugar was melted in the liquid so it would stick to his victim’s skin, an attack known as a “jugging” that Stapleton learned about from a book in the prison library.

Stapleton, 21, then carried on the attack using billiard balls in a sock with the help of two friends from Salford armed with pool cues. He will be sentenced for Mr Bidve’s murder today.