The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
University student killed for being ‘drunk and annoying’ on bus
THREE teenagers killed a university student after they found him “drunk and annoying” on a bus, a court heard.
Gabriel Stoyanov, 21, was attacked by the youths after getting off the 181 service in Bromley, south-east London, in November last year.
The business management undergraduate had been out drinking with a friend and, after they got on the bus, he attempted to engage with the attackers: two youths now aged 15 and 17, and 18-year-old Alex Kibble.
The defendants got off the bus two stops later and went to the home of the 17-year-old where they armed themselves with weapons and lay in wait for him outside a takeaway restaurant.
The 17-year-old had a knife while Kibble had a motorbike chain and the 15-year-old had a bottle.
CCTV showed Mr Stoyanov come out and back away as he saw the defendants.
Kibble swung a motorcycle chain at him, but missed. The 15-year-old threw his bottle before the 17-year-old stabbed the victim in his chest with a knife.
The youths then ran away and Mr Stoyanov was taken to hospital where he died the next day.
During a trial at the Old Bailey in August, Edward Brown KC, prosecuting, had told jurors that Mr Stoyanov was murdered for “being little more than drunk” and that “nothing he did reasonably justified, in law or otherwise, being attacked and killed.”
Mr Brown said that the victim had sought to engage with his killers but this had not been welcomed.
The court heard he had flicked the ear of the 17-year-old youth and punched him in the stomach but without much force before being taken off the bus by his friend.
The defendants had claimed they acted in “self-defence” but the trial judge rejected the suggestion they were provoked in any way.
The 17-year-old was found guilty of murder and handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years.
Kibble, from Bexley, south-east London, was also found guilty of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years and nine months.
The 15-year-old was sentenced to six years and eight months for manslaughter.
The defendants were also convicted of being in possession of offensive weapons, which was reflected in their sentences.
Sentencing the trio on Friday, Judge
‘Nothing he did reasonably justified, in law or otherwise, being attacked and killed’
John Hillen said Mr Stoyanov had been described by his loved ones as “easy going, compassionate and always ready to help others”.
The judge said: “He is described by his mother as being full of life and dreams and energy to achieve them.
“He had a sparkling personality and infinite goodness in his spirit. He was the joy of his family and his untimely death has devastated them.”
At an earlier hearing, Mr Stoyanov’s mother Mariana Petrova said “Losing a child is a terrible thing and anyone who has not experienced it cannot understand it, but I assure you that there is nothing worse than this.”