Statement From Anuj Bidve's Family

26 July 2012, 19:18 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Th family of murdered 23 year old student Anuj Bive gave this statement outside court today, after his killer was convicted of his murder.

A statement from Anuj’s father, Subhash Bidve, was read out said court; He said

"Today, Kiaran Stapleton has been convicted of murder and the Judge will sentence him tomorrow.

"When Anuj came to the United Kingdom in September 2011 he carried with him the hopes and dreams of all our family. He was the man who was going to fulfil our hopes and dreams. Instead, in the early hours of Boxing Day morning, Stapleton, cold bloodedly and brutally murdered our son. Stapleton had never met our son and did not know anything about him. Stapleton, in the blink of an eye, and the time it took a bullet to leave the gun he was holding, turned Anuj’s hopes and dreams into our living and continuous nightmare.

"Stapleton had three plans to try and get away with murdering our son. The first was to deny any involvement, the second was to blame someone else and when they both failed he decided to try diminished responsibility.

"Throughout the proceedings Stapleton maintained his defence of diminished responsibility and made us all sit through five weeks of harrowing evidence..

"Whilst giving his evidence in this trial Stapleton grinned, smiled and openly laughed at the memory of our son and at one stage looked towards the jury and pointed to his face saying, 'Look at this face. Does it look bothered?'

"Last Wednesday, 18th July 2012, was Anuj’s 24th birthday. Instead of celebrating his birthday we left our accommodation here in Manchester and travelled in silence to Ordsall Lane. Once at Ordsall Lane we lit a candle, laid some cards and flowers, said some prayers and shed some tears at the spot where he died. We then left Ordsall Lane and travelled, in silence, to this court building where we heard another expert analysing how Kiaran Stapleton was thinking and what he felt when he murdered our son.

"The jury decided that his final plan of diminished responsibility was another failed exercise and, in fact, concluded that he had carried out the brutal and totally unnecessary murder of Anuj.

"Our son, Anuj, was the kindest and most genuine person on this earth. He knew the difference between right and wrong and lived his life the right way. Kiaran Stapleton is the complete opposite and yet he is the one who is still alive and our son is dead.

"These journeys from India have been exceedingly difficult for us, however they have been made slightly easier by the support of Greater Manchester Police and in particular our dedicated Family Liaison Officers, Pete Rickards and Jack Chadwick. In addition we would also like to mention the Indian High Commission, Crown Prosecution Service, the Witness Service and all the people involved in the trial process and I would like to take this opportunity of publicly saying thank you to them all.

"We will now return to India, far sadder, and will take with us only the memories of our beloved son Anuj."