Pair who killed delivery driver and stole three pizzas jailed for 22 years

Two men who killed a Pizza Hut delivery driver then "laughed and joked" as they ate the stolen pizzas have been jailed for a total of 22 years.

Forty-five-year-old deliveryman Ali Qasemi was lured to a false address by the pair and then punched in the face.

The father-of-two, whose wife Fawzia was pregnant at the time with their third child, hit his head on the ground in as he fell and died two days later.

His attackers, Mark Lintott and Joel Lawson, had been drinking lager and using cocaine with friends at Lintott's Peterborough flat when Lintott phoned Pizza Hut, a trial at Peterborough Crown Court heard last month.

Lintott, 29, provided a false address in his street, hoping to snatch the pizzas without paying for them and with no comeback to his address, the court heard.

Lawson, 25, threw the punch that floored Mr Qasemi, but the prosecution argued Lintott was equally culpable as the pair had hatched the plan together.

Those in the flat had joked it would be funny to see a deliveryman chasing them down the street with the stolen pizzas following the "snatch and grab", said Gregory Perrins, prosecuting.

On Friday a judge at Cambridge Crown Court sentenced Lintott to 13 years in prison for manslaughter and six years for robbery to run concurrently.

Lawson, who had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery at a previous hearing, was sentenced to nine years in prison for manslaughter and four-and-a-half years for robbery to run concurrently.

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Qasemi said her husband - a refugee who fled war in Afghanistan - was the "backbone" of their family.

She watched the sentencing over a video link from another room as she had her eight-week-old baby with her.

Mrs Qasemi, whose elder sons are aged seven and 11, said: "I will never overcome the pain and hurt of losing him in such a tragic way."

She called her husband's attackers were "pure evil", saying: "No matter how far you run to get away from war, you can't get away from evil."

Sally Hobson, mitigating, said Lawson had two children, his partner was expecting a third and he had written a letter of apology to Mrs Qasemi.

Peter Lownds, for Lintott, said the defendant's intention was to steal the pizzas, there was no prior discussion about punching and Lintott was of "low intelligence".

Judge David Farrell, sentencing, described the incident as a "deliberately planned robbery" and said that as Mr Qasemi lay dying, Lintott had grabbed the pizzas and they both fled.

"Neither of you showed an ounce of concern for the welfare of the man you had been party to knocking to the ground," he said. "You both ate the pizzas, laughed and joked about what had just gone on."

In a statement released after the hearing, senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Lucy Thomson described the attack as "a sickening, senseless crime,"

"I and my inquiry team send our deepest sympathy to Mrs Qasemi and the boys at this incredibly difficult time," he said.