Child Killer's Murderers Jailed For Life

Two men who murdered a convicted child killer in jail have been told they will spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

Lee Newell, 44, and Gary Smith, 48, were both handed whole life sentences by a judge at Warwick Crown Court for killing Subhan Anwar.

Anwar was strangled after allowing himself to be tied up, because he may have mistakenly believed he was being taken hostage.

The motive for his murder remained unclear, but the judge presiding over the trial said he believed it may have been due to the breaking of what he called a “moral code” that exists within prisons.

Jurors heard that when guards came to take the pair away for questioning, they refused to come out of their cells at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire.

Smith even calmly made Newell a cup of hot chocolate during the stand-off with prison staff.

The inmates were also convicted of stealing personal items, including prayer beads, a watch and an earring, from Anwar after choking him to death inside his cell on February 14.

Both defendants refused to listen to the judge’s closing remarks at Warwick Crown Court.

They had been prepared to sit in the dock to hear the sentence passed but then demanded to be taken back to the cells after the judge gave permission for Anwar’s parents to sit in the well of the court rather than the public gallery.

Anwar, 24, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was serving a life term for murder, having been convicted of killing his partner’s two-year-old daughter, Sanam Navsarka, in 2008.

Mr Justice Baker, who addressed his remarks to Smith and Newell despite their absence from the dock, said: “You pretended that you were there merely to hold him hostage.

“I am quite satisfied that this was merely pretence on both your parts in order to ensure that the deceased didn’t resist while you tied him up.

“One of the most chilling aspects of this case was the almost complete lack of emotion shown by either of you after the killing.”

The judge added: “In the course of the trial the jury heard evidence about the type of moral code which exists within the prison population.

“It may be no coincidence that the deceased in this case had been convicted of killing a young child.”

Newell, originally from Norwich, was originally jailed at the city’s crown court in 1989 for strangling his neighbour, 56-year-old Mary Neal.

Smith, then of Anchor Street, Belgrave, Leicester, was jailed in 1999 along with another man for murdering 22-year-old Ali Hassan, whose naked body was thrown into a quarry at Swithland Woods, Leicestershire.

Child Killer's Murderers Jailed For Life