THREE men guilty of the brutal killing of a drug dealer who died a week after being robbed have been jailed for more than 50 years.
“Enforcer” Euan Peters was convicted of murdering 22-year-old Shafiul Islam in Newport while Perrie Dunwell and Conlan Dunnion were found guilty of manslaughter.
Rapper Peters, 42, of Dros-y-Morfa, Rumney, Cardiff, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum tariff of 33 years.
Drug dealer Dunwell, 33, of Cold Mill Road, Newport, was jailed for 13 years and nine months.
Aspiring boxer Dunnion, 23, of Maesglas Avenue, Maesglas, Newport, was locked up for nine years and six months.
Victim Shafiul Islam
The trio were found guilty of the charges by a jury following a three-week trial at Newport Crown Court.
The judge, Mrs Justice Jefford, told the killers: “His family had to watch him die slowly until his life support was turned off.
“The impact on her was devastating.”
Mr Islam passed away at the city’s Royal Gwent Hospital on November 20, 2019, six days after sustaining a "devastating brain injury".
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He was targeted at his home, a flat in the Shaftesbury area, because he supposedly owed a drug debt to Dunwell.
Prosecutor Mark Wyeth QC said a Kopparberg cider bottle was used to repeatedly beat the victim who was known by his nickname ‘Chilly’.
The jury were shown footage of Peters and Dunwell enjoying a meal shortly before the killing
The jury heard Peters was hired as muscle by Dunwell, an “enforcer” paid to collect a debt that could have been as big as £10,000.
It was the prosecution’s case that Chilly’s “friend” Dunnion had opened the communal door at Mr Islam’s flat to allow Peters in to attack him.
Mr Wyeth said the three defendants had worked together to carry out a planned robbery that had fatal consequences.
Peters had admitted conspiracy to rob Mr Islam while the other two were found guilty of this charge by the jury.
When police and paramedics were called to the flat just before midnight on Thursday, November 14, 2019, they found it had been ransacked.
They discovered Mr Islam lying unconscious in a cupboard.
The jury was shown CCTV footage of Dunwell and Peters at the Tawa Indian restaurant in the Spytty area of Newport earlier that evening.
Peters was shown picking up a bottle of Kopparberg cider before leaving.
Dunwell later drove Peters to Mr Islam’s home where Dunnion let him into the block of flats by opening the communal door.
Mr Wyeth said: “Euan Peters, the prosecution say, hit him with the bottle of Kopparberg he’d taken earlier from the restaurant.
“That was a deliberate, gratuitous and violent attack that was made by him with the concurrence of his two co-defendants.”
Caroline Rees QC, representing Dunnion, said her client was “deeply remorseful” for his actions.
After sentence was passed, Mr Islam's family said in tribute to him: “Shafiul was so young and his death was so unexpected, it did not need to happen. It was brutal.
“Going to court every day to watch the trial has made us have to relive it all. We have seen how much Shafiul suffered from the attack and how calculated it was.
“We will never know the truth of what happened because they have all given different accounts to hide their involvement and that is so difficult to accept.
“We will all remember Shafiul as a son, brother and nephew who remained strong and would always be happy and smiling.
“We pray that he is in a better place and that he is resting.”
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