Top judge rejects call to lengthen killer’s sentence
SENTENCE FOR MAN WHO STABBED GRANDAD IN STREET SLAMMED AS ‘UNDULY LENIENT’
AN APPEAL to strengthen the sentence of a Southall killer who stabbed a grandad to death in the street has been rejected by a top judge despite it being slammed as “unduly lenient”.
Allan Isichei, 69, was stabbed to death in 2019 by Gurjeet Singh Lall, after an argument started over Lall spitting in the street.
Following the killing, Lall was found guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility due to his long running history of mental health problems and was detained indefinitely at a secure hospital.
In a new appeal the Attorney General branded the sentence as “unduly lenient” and said the correct order should have been imprisonment for life.
Under the current sentence Lall could be released when a clinician deems him well enough to leave although a judge admitted: “in the present case there can be no dispute that Mr Lall is highly dangerous.”
At the time of his death Mr Isichei had been married for 49 years and lived in Southall for 35 of them.
He had three children and five grandchildren.
On Sunday August 24, 2019, Mr Isichei, a well-known and respected man in his local community, had been at his local pub The Plough on Tentelow Lane enjoying a beer and read his tablet in the beer garden.
After one drink he was walking back to his nearby home when his killer, Lall, spat on the pavement in front of him.
Mr Isichei confronted him about it and an argument began.
As the victim started walking away, Lall spat again causing Mr Isichei to turn back and confront him.
At this point Lall pulled a large kitchen knife from his pocket and stabbed Mr Isichei several times in the stomach and abdomen.
After a struggle on the floor Mr Isichei staggered to a neighbour’s address and rang the doorbell, pleading for help. Paramedics were called but despite their best efforts the victim died a short time later.
He had worked as a builder and later as a director in a building firm, and was an influential member of the Wasps rugby team for many years, as a player in the 70s and 80s and then later on as a coach.
Lall was later charged with murder but following a review of his mental health, he was found guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility at Inner London Crown Court on October 26 2020.
He was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983.
At the time the judge accepted expert opinion that Lall had a “long-standing and complicated history of mental illness” that “contributed significantly to the offence”.
Lall had not been taking his medication at the time of the incident and the judge agreed with psychiatrists who said “it is highly unlikely that he would have committed the offence if he had been taking his medication.”
Duncan Atkinson QC for the Attorney General, took the case to the Court of Appeal where it was heard by Lord Justice Bean. His decision was issued on Friday, March 19.
He rejected the appeal, deciding that the section 37/41 order “was the appropriate one to ensure so far as possible that, following the tragic death of Mr Isichei, the public can best be protected in future from harm”.
At the time of Lall’s sentencing, Detective Inspector Jamie Stevenson, of the Met’s Specialist Crime, said: “It beggars belief that a man could go to his local pub for a quick drink on a Saturday evening and not return home, but that is the terrible reality that Allan’s family have been left with.
“Allan was a creative and constructive man, living a full and active life through his sport and music.
“His loss is immeasurable, and is of course most felt by his loving family, who still grieve for him and will do so for a very long time to come.
“There was no good reason for Lall to have had a knife in his possession that day, and no good reason for him to use it. I am glad that he was convicted after the jury rejected his claim that he was acting in self-defence, and that he has now been detained indefinitely.”