by Gareth Davies

gareth.davies@essnmedia.co.uk

Three muggers who killed a man for his Blackberry phone were each jailed for nine years today (Friday).

The thugs targeted 24 year-old garage worker Saravanakumar Sellappan after spotting him walking down a Thornton Heath street talking on his mobile.

Surveillance cameras captured refugees Jegir Ahmmadi, 20, Roshan Samedov, 18, and Awat Muradi, 18, following the victim into Brigstock Road, on October 17 last year.

Moments later, outside the range of CCTV, they knocked him to the floor and ran off with the phone which they later sold for £60 and a chicken takeaway in Brigstock Road, Thornton Heath.

Samedov also put the SIM card in his own phone and used it to make a five-minute call to the Party Girl sex line.

Mr Sellappan staggered home but had no idea he had suffered a fractured skull and brain damage. He died two days later in hospital after falling into a coma.

Samedov, Muradi and Ahmmadi, who came to the UK from Armenia and Iran as children, were convicted of manslaughter and robbery after an Old Bailey trial.

Sentencing them, Judge Michael Mettyear said: "Mr Sellappan was a wholly innocent victim. His misfortune was to be using a Blackberry as he walked past you.

"The court saw how carefully the three of you followed him waiting for an opportunity to rob him. It looked like a well-oiled machine.

"The moment he stepped out of CCTV range he was attacked. The probability is the mere threat of force would have persuaded him to hand over the Blackberry. He wasn't given the chance.

"Which of you actually delivered the blow is still in dispute. It matters not, all of you were in this together.

The judge said the case was relevant to the current debate about the prevalence of CCTV cameras in Britain.

"The facts in this case include these three defendants would not have been successfully prosecuted without CCTV evidence.

"Indeed the probabilities are they would not have even been identified. In my view had CCTV range covered the whole of Mr Sellappan's journey home it is highly likely he would not have been attacked at all.

Ahmmadi, an Iranian, of Morland Road, Woodside, Armenian Samedov, of Greenside Road, Croydon, and Iranian Muradi, of Sutherland Road, Croydon, all denied murder, manslaughter and robbery.

They were cleared of murder by an Old Bailey jury.

All three now face deportation from the UK.