Killers get life for East End murder of teenage girl and gran

TWO young thugs who murdered teenager Shannen Vickers and her gran by setting fire to their home in London's East End have been jailed today (Monday) for 25 years each. Jake Sheehan, 20, and David Philip, 19, were convicted by an Old Bailey jury of double murder

TWO young thugs who murdered teenager Shannen Vickers and her gran by setting fire to their home in London’s East End have been jailed today (Monday) for 25 years each.

Jake Sheehan, 20, and David Philip, 19, were convicted by an Old Bailey jury of double murder on Friday after a three-week trial and returned for sentence this-afternoon.

They had poured petrol through the letterbox of the flat in Bethnal Green’s Malmesbury high-rise block of flats at 5.30am on January 22 while 17-year-old Shannen and her grandmum Pauline Adams, 57, were asleep.

Their helpless victims were overcome by smoke as they lay side by side in the bedroom of the fifth floor flat.

Philip and Sheehan, who blamed each other for the attack, had vowed revenge after losing a fight with Pauline Adams’ grandson in a row over �15.

Judge Richard Hawkins ordered them to serve a minimum 25 years behind bars. They will both be in their 40s, twice their age, before they can even apply for parole.

He told them: “Both of you lost street credit so you decided to take revenge and set fire to the flat regardless of who died, intent on killing those inside.

“You also struck at the heart of Nicola Vickers who has lost a mother and daughter.”

Relatives in the public gallery applauded and shouted “scum” as the two young killers were led down to the cells.