Mother and son get 28 years for brutal boyfriend attack

Balbir Kaur recruited 21-year-old Manvir Singh to murder Samson Masih, aged 37, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The 43-year-old knew when the victim was coming to her home and told her son who arranged an ambush, explained Mr Robert Price, prosecuting.

Both men arrived at the flat in Alfred Gunn House, Thompson Road, Oldbury after Kaur told Singh: 'Come and kill him.'

The men left the flat together and walked to nearby Primrose Bank where the son had arranged for four men to lie in wait in a parked car.

At the pre-arranged signal of Singh grabbing the unsuspecting victim round the neck they joined in the ferocious beating armed with a machete-type weapon, metal bar and knife.

Mr Masih suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and broken bones in his back, leg and face during the October 12 onslaught.

He remembers little of the incident but nine months later is still suffering both physically and psychologically with weakness to the left side of his body, shooting pains in both his head and neck and flashbacks. He has been told it will be many more months before he can work, the court heard.

Mother of three Kaur wanted him dead after discovering his sole interest was sex not marriage, it was suggested.

Mr Barry Grennan, defending her, argued: "There was a significant degree of provocation to an individual incapable of coping with it."

Mr Gurdeep Garcha, for Singh, of Green Lane, Walsall, said: "He is extremely protective of his mother. When she phoned in a distressed condition and asked for help he went about it in the wrong way."

Singh, who had previous convictions for violence, recruited a 'mob' of 'his men' who drove with him to the scene. He refused to identify them.

A jury found Kaur, who was of previous good character, guilty of soliciting murder and convicted Singh of attempted murder. Both pleaded not guilty.

Judge James Burbidge QC jailed the mother for 11 years while her son - said to represent a danger to the public - was given an extended 17 year sentence, meaning he must serve at least two thirds of the term in custody and can only be freed when the parole board rules it safe to do so. He will then be monitored for two years longer than normal.

The judge told Kaur: "Your motivation is still not clear but it may be you appreciated you were being strung along and the man was not being honourable. He was using you for his own ends but you then led your son into this offence."

He turned to Singh and continued: "She knew you would respond with gusto and venom, engaging in that course of conduct without hesitation. You led an attack that was merciless and ferocious but miraculously not fatal."