LEICESTER, ENGLAND, July 9, 2001: A drug addict has been jailed for life for the murder of one of the UK’s most prominent Hindu priests. Harish Purohit, a high-profile member of Leicester’s Hindu community, bled to death after being stabbed 16 times in October last year. After a week-long trial, a jury took just three hours to find Dean Riddell, 26, of no fixed address, guilty of murder. Nottingham Crown Court heard that Harish Purohit led a secret life in Leicester’s gay community. The jury was told how Mr Purohit’s family knew of his homosexuality and he was also well-known on Leicester’s gay scene. Jailing Riddell for life, Mr. Justice Hughes told him: “It is perfectly clear to me that you were picked up by the deceased man in his motorcar. There was some kind of altercation and the jury has decided it was not self-defense or provocation. It was a sustained attack from behind with a knife you carried habitually.”
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