Trio sent to custody over brutal revenge killing

Harvinder Shoker was given a life sentence and will serve a minimum of 22 years for murdering Gagandip Singh, 21, in February last year.

He and Darren Peters beat Mr Singh unconscious and bundled him into the boot of a car which was then set on fire. Peters was sentenced to 12 years for Mr Singh’s manslaughter.

Female medical student Mundill Mahil, who lured Mr Singh to the scene of the attack, got six years for grievous bodily harm.

It emerged during the trial that Mr Singh tried to rape Mahil six months before he died.

She confided in Shoker about the attempted sex attack, and he recruited Peters to help.

Mahil lured Mr Singh to her university house in Brighton, pretending that she wanted to talk to him.

He did not know that Shoker and Peters were lying in wait in the bedroom, where he was viciously beaten.

Once Mr Singh was unconscious, they wrapped him in a duvet and bundled him into the boot of the Mercedes he had been driving.

They drove the car to Blackheath in south east London, where it was set alight with Mr Singh still inside in February last year. Scientific evidence suggested he was unconscious at the time.

Passing sentence, Judge Paul Worsley said: “This was a tragic case. A promising young man of 21 years was burned to death.”

Speaking to a tearful Mahil, he said: “He died in appalling circumstances.”

After the attempted sex attack, Mr Singh had bombarded Mahil with hundreds of text messages and phone calls.

The judge went on: “You, Mundill, had decided that Gagandip Singh should be taught a lesson he would never forget. Exactly six months to the day before his death in the very bedroom where he was to be attacked, he had sexually assaulted you.”

Mahil’s brother Harinder had apparently encouraged her to do something about the assault; she did not want to go to the police.

Judge Worsley said Mahil “showed no pity” when Mr Singh called out her name as he was attacked, and added: “You can be manipulative, vengeful and deceitful.”

Addressing Shoker, he said: “Besotted by Mundill, you were prepared to do whatever she asked and more.”

Mahil, 20, of Maidstone Road, Chatham, Kent; Shoker, 20, of Charlton Park Lane, Greenwich; and Peters, 20, of Shooters Hill Road, Blackheath, both south east London; were all sent to young offenders institutions.

Mr Singh was the owner of a new broadcasting service called Sikh TV, and also helped in his family’s successful packing business.

In mitigation, Michael Birnbaum QC said Mahil was of “extraordinarily good character”.