Killers who viciously attacked their victim then humiliated him by stripping him naked and left him to die in a skip have been jailed for life at the Old Bailey today.

Michael Hunt was stamped on, punched and kicked during the attack in an alleyway off Station Road, South Norwood, in the early hours of March 15.

He had been led down the alleyway by Arry Green, 22, and Fiona Nalty after Mr Hunt, who is known in the area as Irish Mick, is believed to have tried to chat Nalty up.

The beating, which lasted up to 26 minutes, left the 37-year-old with a fractured skull, nose, cheekbones and a rib as well as internal injuries and extreme bruising all over his body.

His body was discovered about six hours later and despite extensive efforts to save him he died at Kings College Hospital just before noon that day.

Sentencing them this afternoon, Judge Stephen Kramer said they were both equally responsible for the attack.


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Irish Mick's killers have been jailed for life at the Old Bailey today

And the pair, who are both said to have been lovers despite being in other relationships, must both serve a minimum of 19 years in prison.

Judge Kramer said: "Whatever the truth about whether you had a sexual relationship from time to time and whether that night Mr Hunt made unwanted sexual advances to you Miss Nalty, what you both did to him was shocking and totally unjustified.

"You had both been drinking, you both knew perfectly well what you were doing.

"You both intended to cause Mr Hunt serious harm.

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Michael Hunt's body was left in a skip

"In your favour I'm satisfied that your intent was to cause him serious bodily harm and not to kill him.

"The violence was extreme once it started but it wasn't premeditated.

"But it was a sustained attack that must have lasted several minutes.

"You not only caused physical suffering but also mental suffering.

"You humiliated him by removing all his clothes and you left him for dead."

The judge told Green, of Whitehorse Road, South Norwood, and Nalty that before hearing the submissions from their defence counsel he had been considering jailing them both for 22 years.

Jane Bickerstaff, Green's barrister, told the judge that her client was full of remorse about what he had done and never intended to kill Mr Hunt.

She passed a note from Green to the judge which is understood to have said how sorry the 22-year-old is.

And said: "There was no intention on his part that anything he did would result or come close to resulting in the death of Mr Hunt.

"There was no premeditation. This was started on the spur of the moment.

"Mr Green was highly intoxicated and it was the drink that caused him to behave as he did on the night in question."

And she said that he is a doting father of three boys, the eldest turning three later this month.

Ms Bickerstaff added: "He knows that by his own actions, which he takes responsibility for, that not only has Mr Hunt lost his life, he's going to be deprived for a very long time from being able to bring up his sons.

"When he was told that Mr Hunt had died he became hysterical and said 'I cannot believe that I have killed him.

"That remorse is genuine for his involvement in this incident and the consequences."

And she said Green had offered a plea to manslaughter.

Throughout the three and a half week trial Nalty, of Fairdene Road, Coulsdon, had said she had not played any part in the attack.

Nalty's barrister Peter Doyle made submissions to the judge on her behalf in writing and these were not read out in court.