Man said victim was assassin

A convicted quadruple killer stabbed and beat a man to death believing he was a paid assassin sent from Albania to avenge a double shooting, a court heard.

Mane Driza, 41, known as Scarface film character Tony Montana, is accused of murdering fellow Albanian Stefan Bledar Mone, 23, in June 1999.

He allegedly attacked Mr Mone at his flat in Wembley, north London, inflicting more than 120 injuries with knives and a pick-axe handle.

Two years before, Driza, going by the name Sokol Drenova, had fled Albania to escape police after shooting dead father and son Elmaz and Lavdosh Kannani, jurors heard.

Following Mr Mone’s death he went to Italy where he went on to shoot and kill two more people at a bar in Catania, Sicily, months later, in December 1999.

In July 2000, a Scotland Yard officer travelled to Sicily to speak to Driza in prison about Mr Mone’s death.

Retired Detective Chief Inspector George Couch said: “He was sure of one thing – that Bledar Mone was paid to kill him, because before this Bledar Mone was in prison together with the man he killed in Albania.”

On the day of the killing, Driza said Mr Mone had come at him with a knife and struck him with a baseball bat.

Driza, of no fixed abode, has denied the murder of Mr Mone and the Old Bailey trial continues.