A father who murdered a burglar outside his house had previously posted a photo of the vigilante played by Charles Bronson in the Death Wish movies on a neighbourhood group with the comment: ‘This is who we need.’
David King, 56, confronted Neil Charles with a Second World War dagger, while his son Edward, 20, wielded a Ninja sword after they spotted him casing their neighbourhood on CCTV.
Two minutes after going outside their £550,000 home to deliver their ‘own form of justice’, Charles had been stabbed in the chest by David and slashed on the knee by his son. He died two days later in hospital.
The pair were convicted of murder by acting in a joint enterprise following a trial and returned to court where they received life terms, with David, a project manager in the construction industry, serving a minimum 21 years and Edward at least 19 years before being considered for parole.
Dismissing claims the defendants intended to lawfully detain Charles in a citizen’s arrest, Judge Martyn Levett told them: ‘I am sure that both of you on that occasion wanted to hunt down the offender and punish him with violence.
‘There was a considerable amount of pre-meditation and planning.’