Three guilty of Mick McGrath Triad murder (From This Is Local London)

Three guilty of Mick McGrath Triad murder

7:22pm Wednesday 19th November 2008 in

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Three men have today been found guilty of the murder of 57-year-old Michael McGrath in Carshalton in November 2007.

Chou Wei Leong, 22, Ryan Parker-Saunders, 24, and Yuxiang Lui, 25, were found guilty at the Old Bailey of McGrath’s murder while a fourth man, Jerome Castrillo, currently 18 but 17 at the time of the killing, was also found guilty of manslaughter.

Michael McGrath was found dead inside his Shaftesbury Road home at 9.20am on November 29 last year after a neighbour discovered his front door open.

Prosecutors claimed the gang ambushed Mr McGrath after he helped himself to £800 worth of drugs stashed at his flat in Shaftesbury Avenue.

It is alleged the 57-year-old victim had been looking after crack and heroin for a Triad branch known as the Wo Shing Wo.

The court has heard that Parker-Saunders, 23, grabbed a vase and smashed it over Mr Grath’s head 11 times before the men fled, leaving him for dead in a pool of blood.

The killers left behind incriminating Chinese cigarette butts which were linked to them by DNA.

Parker-Saunders, a drugs runner from West Norwood, admitted he was ordered to threaten Mr McGrath but denied beating him.

He told jurors: “I just saw him get punched a few times. I thought he would be all right.

“The next day I got a phone call from a drug addict who said that Mick was dead. I was in shock. I started sweating. I couldn't believe it. I felt guilt that it was my fault.”

All four will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on December 22.