João Esteves was beaten savagely in Sussex, UK by a young Briton who left him in the street to die.
Daniel Palmer was sentenced today to life imprisonment for the murder of the Portuguese man João Esteves in Crawley, Sussex, on January 19th 2014 in a crime that especially sickened the Portuguese community in the UK and was widely reported in the Portuguese media.
Palmer has been found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He will serve a minimum of 15 years.
Palmer, 24, murdered Esteves, a 45-year old Portuguese man who had arrived in London just a few days earlier looking for work.
João Esteves had approached Daniel Palmer at dawn in a street in Crawley, Sussex and asked him for a cigarette.
Palmer claimed in court that the Esteves had demanded his money and mobile phone and so he hit the Portuguese man in self-defence.
Esteves apparently apologised and Palmer, on the pretext of offering him shelter, led him to a more secluded spot to beat him up and throttled him with wire.
Palmer left the Portuguese man where he lay and did not call an ambulance. Palmer even photographed the wounded man as he lay on the ground, then left him to die.
Roy Hancock, an erstwhile friend of Daniel Palmer, said in court that he talked with Palmer shortly after the crime and that Palmer asked him to take "petrol and a lighter to set light to the body."
Hancock refused and went to the police. Both Palmer and Esteves were drunk.
The Portuguese man was found unconscious in a street by passers by but he later died in hospital.
