One of two brothers who shot the father and brother of a Braintree woman with a sub-machine gun in a bloody gangland killing has been jailed for a minimum of 35 years.
Kevan Thakrar, 21, of Lomond Way, Stevenage, who was found guilty of three murders at a trial at St Albans Crown Court in August, was sentenced at London’s Southwark Crown Court for his role in the triple killing.
In August, his older brother Miran Thakrar, 24, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to a minimum of 42 years for killing Keith Cowell, 52, his son, Matthew Cowell, 17, – brother of Charlotte, who lives in Braintree – and friend Tony Dulieu, 33, with a Mac-10 weapon during a £30,000 cocaine deal.
The attack took place during the bungled drug deal at the Cowells’ home in Bishop’s Stortford on August 28 last year.
Ian Jennings, a drug dealer, survived the onslaught by hiding in the back garden, but his mother Christine and Matthew Cowell’s girlfriend Clare Evans were seriously injured after being stabbed and beaten.
The two Thakrar brothers were also convicted of the attempted murders of Mrs Jennings and Ms Evans and possession of a firearm.
Kevan Thakrar was given concurrent sentences of a minimum of 35 years for each murder, 15 years for each attempted murder and seven years for possession of an illegal firearm.
Sentencing him, Mr Justice Cooke acknowledged that while he did not fire the gun, his role was a key one in the “cold blooded, pre-planned” triple killing.
He said: “While I’m satisfied that Miran played the lead part, you participated fully with him in the plan to kill and were the willing participant in the three murders.”
Speaking after the sentencing, Det Chief Inspector Michael Hanlon said: “It was a totally cold blooded, premeditated, mindless attack for which there can be no justification. Kevan Thakrar has shown no remorse at all throughout the investigation or the trial.”
