Gagandip Singh whose body was found in the boot of a burning car

A man sentenced for the murder of TV executive Gagandip Singh has been told he will serve a minimum of 22 years in prison.

Twenty-year-old Harvinder Shoker was convicted of murdering Mr Singh whose body was found in the boot of a blazing car and was sentenced to life imprisonment by Judge Paul Worsley sitting at the old Bailey today.

His co-defendant Darren Peters, 20, of Shooters Hill Road, was convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in a young offenders institute.

Medical student Mundhill Kaur Mahil, of Gladstone Place, Brighton, was convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent and will serve six years in a young offenders institute.

The court heard that 20-year-old Mahil had lured Mr Singh to her Brighton home where he was attacked and killed by Shoker and Peters. It was claimed that Mr Singh had attempted to rape her six months earlier.

His body was discovered the next day in the boot of his sister’s Mercedes dumped in Angerstein Road in Blackheath and post mortem tests revealed that he was still alive when the car was set alight.

It emerged during the trial that Mahil claimed Mr Singh tried to rape her six months before he died.

She then confided in Shoker, known as Ravi, about the attempted sex attack, and he recruited Peters to help in the plot against Mr Singh.

Mahil lured Mr Singh to her university house in Brighton, pretending that she wanted to talk to him.

He did not know that Shoker and Peters were lying in wait in the bedroom, where he was viciously beaten

Once Mr Singh was unconscious, they wrapped him in a duvet and bundled him into the boot of the Mercedes he had been driving before dumping it in Blackheath and setting it alight.

Passing sentence, Judge Paul Worsley said: “This was a tragic case. A promising young man of 21 years was burned to death.”

Speaking to a tearful Mahil, he said: “He died in appalling circumstances. He was lured by you, Mundill, to your student house in Brighton where you intended, as the jury have found, that he suffered really serious harm. You had collected Ravi and Darren from the railway station for that very purpose.”

After the attempted sex attack, Mr Singh had bombarded Mahil with hundreds of text messages and phone calls.

The judge said: “You, Mundill, had decided that Gagandip Singh should be taught a lesson he would never forget. Exactly six months to the day before his death in the very bedroom where he was to be attacked, he had sexually assaulted you.”

He said Mahil “showed no pity” when Mr Singh called out her name as he was attacked, and added: “You can be manipulative, vengeful and deceitful.”

Addressing Shoker, he said: “Besotted by Mundill, you were prepared to do whatever she asked and more.

“One witness spoke of your boast that you were prepared to go to prison for 21 years for the sake of Mundill.”

He said the apprentice electrician had gone “far beyond” the planned attack and “intentionally killed Gagandip Singh in horrific circumstances”.