25 years for killer who hid expat body in well

a FrenChman who murdered his British expat neighbour and dumped his body in a well has been jailed for 25 years.

emmanuel Tenret, 31, was found guilty of killing David King, 70, who was originally from newham, east london, after the Briton caught him stealing his vegetables.

Judge Jeanne Cheese said mr King, 71, died in an act of extreme violence in october 2014 – after 14 ‘ heavy and penetrating’ blows to his skull with a ‘ hammer or pickaxe’.

Trenet, 31, then tied a rope around his ankles and then dragged him outside before dumping his body down a 12ft deep well in pierres, an isolated hamlet with a population of less than 200.

mr King had retired there from his job as a lorry driver in the uK some 15 years before, and lived alone.

police initially thought the expat had gone abroad to visit family.

Foul play was only discovered when a British friend living in a nearby village became suspicious and entered mr King’s house to find his passport and heart pills.

Sniffer dogs later found mr King’s corpse down the well in april 2015.

Before being found guilty, Tenret told the court in Caen the murder was the result of a failed burglary, prompted by ‘my hunger’.

psychiatric reports suggested that Tenret suffered from ‘mental immaturity’ and lived by himself since his father died in 2012.