Three Jailed For Gambler's 'Honeytrap' Death

Three people have been jailed over the 'honeytrap' death of a professional poker player.

Leonie Granger, 25, was sentenced to 16 years for manslaughter after deliberately ensnaring 56-year-old Mehmet Hassan.

Two other men, Kyrron Jackson, 28, and Nicholas Chandler, 29, received life with a minimum term of 36 years for his murder.

Sentencing the trio, Judge William Kennedy described the attack, which took place in March last year, as "pitiless and wicked" and "an act of brutality which defies reason and compassion".

The trial heard how Granger went on dates with Mr Hassan and afterwards reported back to the others.

On the night of the murder, Mr Hassan took the care assistant to the Palm Beach Casino, where he gave her £1,000 in cash to gamble with.

She was seen kissing the victim "passionately" and a poker supervisor felt compelled to tell the pair to "get a room".

Later Mr Hassan took her to his Islington flat where she let in her boyfriend Jackson and his friend Chandler as she left to get into a taxi.

The two men used parcel tape to tie up Mr Hassan in his bedroom then kicked him to death and ransacked his home.

The killers were later filmed on Granger's mobile phone throwing wads of £50 notes in the air.

Mr Hassan was a regular at the Playboy Casino on Old Park Lane and the Palm Beach Casino in Berkeley Street, Mayfair - sometimes winning as much as £15,000 in a night.

The divorced father-of-three would keep his winnings around his flat, even stashing thousands of pounds in his microwave.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told jurors he was known to enjoy "the company of women", which made him particularly "vulnerable to the unscrupulous".

In her defence, Granger admitted being involved in a plan to rob Mr Hassan, but denied being party to the murder.

The jury accepted this, but she was found guilty of manslaughter and false imprisonment.

In mitigation, Orlando Pownall QC said Granger had worked with the elderly since she was 18 and only got involved because she was in love with Jackson and "fell in with his desires".

But Judge Kennedy said she had been "deceitful from the outset".

Jackson, of Romborough Way, Lewisham, southeast London, and Chandler, of Lee High Road, southeast London, were further convicted of robbing Mr Hassan, two counts of plotting to rob employees of Grosvenor Casinos, two counts of conspiracy to have a shotgun and imitation firearm, and two counts of conspiracy to falsely imprison.