KORSAKAS: HOUSEMATE KILLER GETS A MINIMUM OF 17 YEARS

An Eastern European squatter who kicked and stamped his housemate to death in a ‘ferocious, severe and prolonged attack’ was jailed for a minimum of 17 years today (Fri).

Paulius Korsakas, 27, battered 37-year-old Russian Igor Vinogradov in a drunken fury as he slept on the floor after a row which left him feeling ‘humiliated or slighted’.

The Lithuanian then attempted to burn his victim’s body to destroy the evidence, before texting his girlfriend to admit: ‘I broke one guy really badly’.

Mr Vinogradov’s body was not discovered until January 31 this year – 11 days after the killing.

Jailing Korsakas for life with a minimum term of 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, who moved to the UK in 2006, denied murder but was convicted after a trial at the Old Bailey.

He attacked his victim at a squat in Capel Road, Forest Gate, east London, on January 20, jurors were told.

Mr Vinogradov was kicked, punched and stamped upon during a ‘murderous assault’ which caused multiple injuries.

He died after inhaling his own blood and choking.

Prosecutor Adrian Darbishire 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 sleighted’.

In a statement read to the court, Mr Vinogradov’s mother Anna Rudinskaja and brother Andrei Draganov said they had been devastated by the death.

The statement, prepared by cousin Margarita Jankauskiene, said: ‘This incident has had a devastating effect on my family and the death has deeply hurt my aunt Anna.

‘Firstly, he was her first child. She has had problems dealing with the fact her child has died before her.

‘This has resulted in tremendous stress and she has been admitted to hospital with a heart condition.

‘She had believed that Igor moved to England to have a better quality of life and was upset by the circumstances in which he died.

‘His brother blamed himself for the death and felt he could have done more to help him.

‘This has caused him sleepless nights.’

Korsakas, of no fixed address, denied murder and told the court that he had not intended to kill his victim.

Jonathan Mann, defending, said of his client: ‘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 – and now this.

‘It illustrates that in different circumstances he was perfectly capable of leaing a law-abiding life.

‘It is going to be all the more difficult for him in prison.’

Judge Rook told Korsakas: ‘I cannot say you intended to kill.

‘However, that is of limited mitigation. Such was the nature of this attack it was bound to cause life-threatening harm.

‘No sober person could have failed to realise death was a real likelihood, if not a certainty.

‘I am quite satisfied you knew what you were doing.’

ends