00:00Anthony Littler was, in 1984, aged 46 years. He was, according to those who knew him,
00:09a quiet, kind and gentle man. He lived a quiet, decent and honest life.
00:17He worked as a civil servant and lived alone in East Finchley. He was a real ale enthusiast,
00:24and on the evening of the 30th of April, 1984, had been after work to a meeting of a
00:31society formed for the preservation of real ale. He travelled home by public transport,
00:39and when alighting from the tube, not long after midnight, started to walk home
00:44along an alley which then led from the tube station to East End Road.
00:48Fifty-seven-year-old Michael Stuarts and his brother,
00:5160-year-old Anthony Stewart, were jailed for life on Friday for the murder of Anthony Littler.
00:57The siblings had confessed to the killing and boasted about, quote-unquote,
01:01queer bashing to their younger brother, who reported them 29 years later. Anthony Stewart,
01:09who was likely to have delivered the fatal blow, was handed a minimum term of 15 years in prison,
01:16and look out, Michael Stewart was jailed for at least 10 years. Littler was, according to those
01:23who knew him, a quiet, kind and gentle man. The prosecution assert that the evidence shows that
01:30you, Anthony Stewart, were the person who struck the fatal blow. Whilst I think that is likely,
01:36I cannot be sure to the criminal standard that that was the case.
01:40I recognise that Michael Stewart told your younger brother, Daniel, at the time, that that was what
01:45happened. But he has said many things over the years, and I don't find that sufficiently reliable
01:52to make me sure of your role. The confession you later made to Daniel was insufficiently detailed
01:59for me to conclude that you struck the fatal blow. I sentence you, therefore, on the basis that you were
02:05a secondary party to the killing of Anthony Littler. The role of each of you was nonetheless significant.
02:14This was no impulsive attack. I am quite sure that your group was lying in wait in and around the
02:22alley for a victim, someone to attack and to rob. I am sure of this for two principal reasons.
02:31First, this is what I am satisfied you were in the habit of doing. I heard evidence in the course
02:37of
02:38the trial from your sister, Gayna, and your brother, Daniel, that you both would often speak of going
02:43out to hurt and to rob people. I emphasise the word and. You were not planning to rob just anyone.
02:54You were targeting a group in particular, and that was homosexual men.
02:59Let's see.
02:59ich
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