'We can't get over what happened to Alfie': Devoted family of Wolverhampton man beaten to death by by double murderer speak out as brutal killer gets another five years behind bars
The family of a Wolverhampton murder victim has welcomed the increased sentence given to the brutal double killer who attacked him.
Vitalie Tanga, aged 41, originally from Moldova, was in jail awaiting trial for the murder of Alfred Mattox in Wolverhampton in 2021 when he strangled Tajinder Kular. Kular was found unconscious by prison officers on September 29, 2022 in the cell the two men were sharing at Birmingham Prison in Winson Green.
Tanga was originally sentenced in April 2024 to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years for Mr Mattox’s murder. In July he was then sentenced to life with a minimum of 27 years and six months for Kular's murder, to run concurrently with his previous sentence.
However, the Solicitor General referred his case to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and he has now been given an extra five years.
Mr Mattox's sister Denise Birdi, aged 66, of Wolverhampton, said: "We were at the court for the Birmingham sentence and thought it was absolutely ridiculous that he only got two-and a half years for the second murder.
"We were expecting him to get another 25 years on top. If we were that guy's family we would have been fuming.
"Five years more is still not enough, but at least they've increased it a bit and it's better than the two-and-a-half years what they originally gave him for it.
"We can’t get over what happened to Alfie. It's still depressing for us. We still feel terrible and still get upset every time we drive past Alfie's flat."
Mr Mattox, also known as Alfie, died two weeks after he was kicked and beaten by acquaintance Tanga during a drink's party on May 10, 2021 to mark Russia's VE Day, after asking him to leave his Hallet Drive home in Merridale in Wolverhampton.
The carer and his partner Vadimas Astraskevicius were knocked unconscious during the incident which was overheard by neighbours who phoned 999.
The killer claimed Mr Mattox had made a pass at him during the afternoon and made derogatory comments about gays to police officers called to the scene.
His second murder victim, Kular, was discovered unconscious by officers and taken to the prison hospital after being attacked with a kettle lead. He died in October 2022 from complications arising from resuscitation and cardiac arrest, and ligature strangulation.
A postmortem found he had marks round his neck, as well as bruising to his face and several broken bones in his neck.
Tanga, of no fixed abode, was found guilty of Mr Mattox's murder and found guilty of assaulting his friend occasioning him actual bodily harm in unanimous verdicts after a jury trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
He was convicted of Kular's murder following a separate trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
