Paulius Korsakas, 27, from Lithuania, battered Russian Igor Vinogradov, 37, in a drunken fury as he slept on the floor in Capel Road, Forest Gate, London, after a row left Korsakas feeling ‘‘humiliated or slighted’’.
Korsakas then attempted to burn the body to destroy the evidence, before texting his girlfriend to admit: “I broke one guy really badly”.Both men had come to Britain for a better life, the court was told.
Mr Vinogradov’s body was not discovered until January 31, 11 days after the killing.
Jailing Korsakas in September 2011, to life imprisoment with a recommendation he serves at least 17 years. Judge Peter Rook, QC, told him: “You deprived your victim of his most precious possession – life itself. This was a ferocious, severe and prolonged attack on a highly vulnerable man. You continued your attack despite his pleas and even attempted to destroy his body by fire. In my view those factors outweigh the limited mitigation in this case.”
Korsakas, of no fixed address, who moved to the UK in 2006, denied murder but was convicted after a trial at the Old Bailey.
Mr Vinogradov was kicked, punched and stamped upon. He died inhaling his own blood.
Adrian Darbishire, prosecuting, said Korsakas’s attack was ‘‘no more than drunken temper and loss of self control, resulting from some sense that he had earlier been humiliated or slighted’’.
In a statement, Mr Vinogradov’s mother Anna Rudinskaja said she had been devastated by the death.
It had resulted in tremendous stress and she has been admitted to hospital with a heart condition.
She said that her son moved to England to have a better quality of life.Jonathan Mann, defending, said of Korsakas: “He came to this country looking for a better life, but that ended up with him losing his job and his family and a descent into alcohol and criminal activity.”
