Life for killer who stole from his victim

A MURDERER has been jailed for life and told he must serve a minimum term of a quarter of a century after burgling his victim days after carrying out the killing.

Philip Craig “deliberately targeted” Christopher Laskaris, a former pupil at one of the country’s leading independent schools, before stabbing him to death in his flat in Leeds and then rifling through the pockets of his victim’s clothing.

Craig then returned to the flat days later in November 2016, to steal other valuables from Laskaris’ Hyde Park flat while the 24-year-old victim lay dead on the floor.

The 38-year-old defendant was yesterday found guilty of murder at Leeds Crown Court following a trial, and was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 25 years.

He was also given a concurrent sentence of three years for the burglary.

Sentencing Craig, Mr Justice Goss said: “The facts reveal a life filled by your selfish desire to satisfy your drug habit and a callous indifference to life and the consequences of violent crime.”

The judge described Mr Laskaris, a former pupil at Charterhouse School in Surrey, as having Asperger Syndrome and bi-polar disorder, meaning he struggled to communicate and interact socially.

Mr Justice Goss said the effects of the death on Mr Laskaris’s family had been “devastating and farreaching in every possible sense”.

A statement from the family of Mr Laskaris said a “bright young man had been robbed of his future”.

It added: “We are relieved that justice has been done, but nothing can ever heal our pain and loss, which we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.”