Killer fails in conviction appeal

A sadist who used a herb-cutter and a gas canister to torture and kill a pensioner has failed to get his murder conviction overturned.

Philip John Evans was jailed for life at Wolverhampton Crown Court in 2006 after he was convicted of murdering Joshua Miller, aged 66, in a torture session motivated by revenge. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years behind bars. Evans, 38, of Osprey Drive, Dudley, and an accomplice Trevor Bate attacked Mr Miller in his home.

The attack was carried out because the victim was wrongly suspected of sexually abusing a young woman, London's Appeal Court heard.

Lord Justice Hughes – who yesterday upheld both Evans's conviction and his minimum jail term – said Evans and Bate tortured Mr Miller to death, although it was another man, Philip Richard Tolley, who orchestrated the killing.

Tolley and Bate were convicted of manslaughter for their parts in the killing, said the judge, with Tolley receiving a 12-year term.

All three men were also convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice over an attempt to cover up the crime. Tolley also had a bid to appeal against his conviction and sentence rejected at London's Criminal Appeal Court.

Mr Miller died less than five hours after he was found, spattered with blood, in his home in Wellington Road, Dudley.

The sentencing judge said Evans had taken the lead in the attack.

Lord Justice Hughes said neither Evans nor Tolley had advanced any "arguable" grounds for appealing their convictions.

Also upholding both men's sentences, he said Tolley, 48, of Duncan Edwards Close, Dudley, had "set up" the attack on Mr Miller "for reasons of revenge" and there was nothing excessive about his 12-year sentence.

Ruling that Evans could have no complaint about his 18-year minimum term, the judge said he had carried out a "revenge attack on a vulnerable man in his own home, accompanied by torture".