A man has been jailed for life for the "barbaric" murder of a disabled barrister living rough in Canterbury in what a judge described as a "gratuitous and humiliating punishment beating".

Sobantu Sibanda, the son of a university lecturer and a social worker, was told today (January 18) he will have to serve at least 19 years for the "callous and extremely violent" killing of "highly intelligent, well-travelled and proud" 51-year-old Guy Malbec before he can be considered for parole.

Mr Malbec, who had qualified in law but never practised, was beaten to death in the early hours of Easter Sunday last year with implements including his own wooden gavel - bought for him by his father to celebrate his call to the Bar - as well as his laptop.

His ordeal on the lower ground floor of Castle Street car park lasted almost two hours and led to Sibanda becoming so enraged that he cruelly destroyed some of Mr Malbec's cherished belongings.

In a particularly callous act, the 28-year-old even swallowed a wooden chess piece from a hand-carved set made by the victim's grandfather, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Sibanda, a former financial advisor, had denied murder, maintaining during days of giving evidence that he had only intended "some harm" to his victim.

But the jury saw through his lies and unanimously convicted him following a six-week trial.

Sibanda, who was also homeless but had previously lived with his family in Albert Street, Whitstable, had however pleaded guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice in respect of his "clean-up" of the killing scene.

He was joined in the dock at trial and for the sentencing hearing by fellow rough sleepers Gavin Houghton, 50, Keith Hall, 51, and 22-year-old Lithuanian Airidas Sakalauskas.

Described as Sibanda's "henchmen" and present when the horrific violence was meted out, they had admitted perverting justice in relation to disposing of evidence or deleting incriminating phone messages, call logs and contacts list.

Houghton, said to have previously worked for 25 years as a chef "at a top level" and of Old Dover Road, Canterbury, was jailed for three years and four months.

Sakalauskas, also of Old Dover Road, was jailed for the same period.

Fellow chef Hall, of Athelstan Road, Thanington, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

The prosecution alleged the three men had "participated in and encouraged" Sibanda's attack but they were found not guilty by the same jury of both murder and manslaughter.

Passing sentence on all four men, Judge Simon James said a defenceless Mr Malbec had been subjected to a "protracted series of violent assaults" which left him bleeding and seriously injured.

He then endured "gratuitous denigration and humiliation" with the destruction of prized, sentimental possessions as well as their use as weapons.

"It was clear from the evidence that the jury heard that it would have been obvious and apparent to each of you that Mr Malbec was seriously injured when you left together," said Judge James.

"Yet none of you gave consideration to seeking assistance for him. You simply left him to die."

The judge continued that Sibanda and his "confederates" Houghton and Sakalauskas had thereafter removed "every trace of the victim and what had happened" bar his body hidden in the tent, while Hall's involvement, although serious, was "less blatant and egregious".

Of the violence itself, Judge James told Sibanda that his cocaine addiction had taken away "all sense of reason and judgement".

"Although your own dramatic fall from grace, to the point that you were homeless and estranged from your family is of itself undeniably tragic, sympathy for your circumstances has to be significantly tempered by your callous use of such extreme violence against an obviously vulnerable victim.

"Mr Malbec's death was caused in the course of a protracted and persistent series of serious assaults where you were simply unable to control your anger.

"As the incident developed, it is clear that your violence became what in reality was a considered and wholly disproportionate act of revenge which developed into what effectively amounted to a punishment beating.

"You were simply unable to control your rage and incapable of listening to reason."

Sibanda has already spent 283 days in custody which will be deducted from his minimum jail term.

A moving victim impact statement written by Mr Malbec's sister Gail Potts - who was listening to proceedings via a remote link - was read to the court in person by her husband, Dr Stephen Potts.

It spoke of how the family had worried for many years about Mr Malbec, fearing he would "die young" intentionally at his own hand or by misadventure, but that what unfolded was "weeks of hell not in our worst nightmares".

"When I first heard Guy was murdered I imagined he had been stabbed and I thought at least it would have been quick and relatively painless," wrote Mrs Potts.

"We wished for a peaceful death at least. This was anything but peaceful. The assault was so prolonged, so violent, so repeated, I cannot imagine the pain inflicted on Guy...His last hours must have been hell on earth.

"The impact of learning what was done to Guy is indescribable. The cruelty of the attacks, the disregard for Guy's humanity...The thought is too much to comprehend or bear."

Mrs Potts also said the family had not only been "robbed" of their loved one but also denied the right to bury Mr Malbec according to the Jewish faith due to the police investigation and pending inquest.

The court heard their anguish was also exacerbated by the destruction of Mr Malbec's treasured belongings, some years old and handed down by his grandparents.

Mrs Potts also addressed the four defendants in her statement, saying they would on their release from prison have "another chance at life", when they had robbed Mr Malbec of his.

She also condemned Houghton, Hall and Sakalauskas for not doing more to help or even dialling 999 anonymously to alert the emergency services.

In conclusion, Mrs Potts said: "My parents in their final decades of life will never be the same. How can they get over the barbaric murder of their child?

"How can they ever come to terms with what was done to Guy? This will remain our family tragedy for as long as we all live."

The trial heard Mr Malbec, who relied on a wheelchair, walking frame and stick due to a leg injury he sustained while living in Israel, had been rough-sleeping in a tent in the car park for around two weeks at the time he was murdered.

Also known by the surname Levy, he had found himself homeless after he returned to the UK on Boxing Day 2022 and was refused benefits due to his long-term absence abroad.

Sibanda and Houghton were his "neighbours" sharing another tent, and all five men knew each other from the Catching Lives homeless charity day centre.

Sakalauskas and Hall were not effectively "on the streets" however as they were housed in temporary accommodation at the time.

Mr Malbec, described by an outreach worker as "very articulate and personable", had previously stayed at Sakalauskas's bedsit.

The court heard Sibanda murdered the trained lawyer in the mistaken belief he had stolen a stash of cocaine from his (Sibanda's) tent.

Such was the ferocity of the attack on April 9 that Mr Malbec, who was just 5ft 7in and weighed a little under 8st 5lbs, suffered a fatal brain bleed, as well as multiple fractures to his nose, eye socket and four ribs.

As many as 18 separate injury sites were inflicted on his head and face, and marks were left on his scalp consistent with the gavel - the sort used by American judges - and the Inspiron laptop base ventilation grill.

Hall himself later described the wounds to police as looking like those seen "in the 10th round of a Rocky film".

Mr Malbec's bloodied and battered body was not discovered by police for more than 24 hours. He was face down inside a vomit-stained sleeping bag pulled tight around his head and within a partially-zipped up tent.

But in that time gap and aware of the victim's demise, Sibanda, Houghton and Sakalauskas had returned to the car park to carry out an extensive "tidy up".

The court heard they bagged up as many as 80 items including bloodstained bedding, clothing, tent poles and the gavel into rubbish sacks.

These were then dumped in council bins in nearby Gas Street. In the meantime, Hall deleted messages and call logs between himself and Houghton.

‘He was physically, as a result of his disability, unable to defend himself...’

Those recovered by police included WhatsApp exchanges in which the pair referred to Mr Malbec in highly derogatory terms.

In others they referred to Sibanda's attack as "a bit surreal" and "crazy s**t". A further message, sent by Houghton after he had returned to the tent site, urged Hall to call him "asap".

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC told the court that Mr Malbec, who qualified as a barrister in the late 1990s, was a vulnerable man who posed no threat and died within a few hours of the "brutal and sustained" assault.

Despite being homeless, she said the car park was his home and a place where he expected to be safe from such violence and, in particular, from his neighbours.

"Guy Malbec was particularly vulnerable because of disability. He was physically, as a result of his disability, unable to defend himself," said Ms Carberry.

"He was physically unable to remove himself from the scene, to run away and to escape the threat posed by Mr Sibanda during this prolonged attack because of his limited mobility and that was a fact well known to Mr Sibanda.

"Although he was a homeless person, that encampment was his home and he was therefore subjected to a prolonged and ultimately fatal attack in the place where he lived and where he expected to be safe, particularly from his neighbours."

It was said the four defendants "did not like" their victim and, even after his death, had continued to demonstrate a "callous disregard" for him.

Of the "concerted" efforts made by Houghton, Sakalauskas and Hall to cover-up what had happened, Ms Carberry said although not sophisticated, they were intended to have "a serious impact on the administration of justice by evading detection and delaying the discovery" of the victim's body.

"All four were present throughout the assaults which led to Mr Malbec's murder and all witnessed the violence to which he was subjected," she told the court.

"They all knew Mr Malbec was deceased when they did the acts intending to pervert the course of justice."

Zimbabwe-born Sibanda and Houghton were already living in the car park when Mr Malbec joined them at the site.

The court heard Sibanda, known as Talent, had once enjoyed a party lifestyle earning £4,000 a month working in London's financial sector.

But the self-confessed cocaine addict's habit cost him many jobs, and he eventually lost his family's loyalty, said Ms Carberry, after he became involved in a money-laundering scam and falsely implicated his father.

Sibanda also blamed drugs for Mr Malbec's death. He told the jury that having worked with a friend on a building renovation he had saved enough money to buy £800 worth of cocaine which he planned to sell on for profit in a bid to escape his own homeless situation.

Although he later agreed he had wrongly accused Mr Malbec of stealing his drug stash, Sibanda admitted he was "raging and fuming" as he subjected his unfortunate victim to as many as 25 separate violent assaults in a little over an hour.

Sibanda described how Mr Malbec "cowered and cried" as he hit him repeatedly with his fists, his elbow, and forearm, cruelly dragged him across the ground by his injured leg and sat astride him.

The gavel was used to not only "pummel" his head but also to "mock" him, Sibanda told jurors, and he smashed up some of Mr Malbec's personal items including a £3,000 Tag Heuer watch, a family-made piece of pottery and the wooden chess set.

Recalling the moment he cold-heartedly swallowed one of the chess pieces, Sibanda had told the jury: "I smashed up the chessboard, I threw away some of the pieces, I threw them over the wall.

"I think I even swallowed one of the pieces. I don't know what I was thinking. I just wanted him to think I was a bit crazy, and obviously I was."

Some of the attack was captured on CCTV, albeit from a distance, at times obscured by concrete pillars, and without sound.

The footage showed Sibanda landing his first blow at 4.41am - a push that sent Mr Malbec falling backwards to the ground and his tent collapsing - and the final strike of a punch at 5.53am.

At one point Sibanda could be seen in the CCTV, which was played extensively at the trial, stopping to remove his bloodstained white body warmer, and on other occasions being pulled away by Hall and Houghton.

The pair, together with Sakalauskas, were said by the prosecution to have ransacked "in earnest" Mr Malbec's belongings strewn across the sleeping area in their search for the cocaine and any valuables.

The violence finally ended and the four men fled just before 6.30am, mercilessly taking Mr Malbec's phone with them so he could not call for help.

Cause of death was later given as blunt force trauma and although pathologist Dr Olaf Biedrzycki said it was impossible to know what blow or weapon had caused the brain injury, he told jurors it would have required "pretty immediate" medical intervention by specialists to be survivable.

Ms Carberry told the court that when the four defendants left the car park, it was "already too late" for Mr Malbec who, after crawling into Sibanda's tent, was left to die "in the most horrific circumstances", vomiting as a consequence of his brain bleed and losing consciousness.

Of Sibanda, Houghton and Sakalauskas's clean-up operation later that day, Ms Carberry added: "They spent about 20 minutes clearing up the mess they had created as Guy Malbec lay dead.

"They really worked at a pace, together as a team, making the site inconspicuous and removing material that may incriminate them.

"And no one, just as the night before, had a prick of conscience to do the right thing."

Mr Malbec's body was eventually discovered on April 10 after Sibanda confessed to another man at Catching Lives he had "beat the s***" out of him in the car park.

Mr Malbec had first come into contact with the homeless charity on February 21 but was not seen by outreach workers to be living at the car park until March 28, when he was described as being "in good spirits and proud of his camp area".

However, he was said to struggle with both his physical and mental health, and was worried his family would be "ashamed and upset" he was homeless.

Emma McCrudden, who worked at Catching Lives, told the court during the trial: "He was sad to be rough sleeping. He said he had previously had a good life, was an educated man, and never saw himself ending up on the streets."

Hall, who previously worked at a Whitstable hotel, told police after his arrest that Sibanda was "like an animal" and "absolutely raging" as he wrongly accused Mr Malbec.

He added he had pulled him off and tried to calm him down, and claimed that when they left the car park the victim, although badly beaten, was injured with visible bruising, swelling and cuts to his face but conscious.

Hall also told police he had deleted phone data under Houghton's instruction, and any blood found on his clothing would be from when he intervened to tug Sibanda back.

Neither Houghton, who at the time of the murder had just gained work at The Pound restaurant in Canterbury, nor Sakalauskas, who came to the UK about three years ago, gave evidence.

All four defendants were said to have "lower level" criminal convictions or cautions and which did not aggravate the sentencing exercise.

Sandip Patel KC, defending Sibanda, said the attack on Mr Malbec, although prolonged, was "spontaneous" and the resulting clean-up "amateurish".

Of a letter the convicted murderer had written to Judge James while in custody, where he acts as a numeracy and literacy mentor to fellow inmates, Mr Patel added: "It reiterates what he said during the trial and at the end of giving his evidence - regret not only for himself but also for Mr Malbec and his family, and accepting the outcome whatever it is going to be."

The court heard Sakalauskas, described as "immature, vulnerable and susceptible to the influence of others" had been placed into temporary accommodation in the city by Bromley Council, having arrived in the UK alone.

Growing up, he had been in care in Lithuania for seven years from the age of 11 following the deaths of his parents within a couple of years of each other.

John FitzGerald said despite limited English and qualifications, Sakalauskas worked hard in the construction and food industries, and at times "put a roof over Mr Malbec's head" by letting him stay at his bedsit.

But the barrister accepted that while his client had been "sympathetic" to the victim, that had "not come into play" during the night of his murder.

Houghton was said to have acted "out of character" and would "bear the responsibility" of not doing more to help Mr Malbec for the rest of his life.

Telling the court the former chef had also expressed his shame, defence barrister Colin Aylott KC said: "Mr Houghton was a man of talent and for 25 years working at the highest level in the restaurant business.

"He was a chef of real ability and that was reflected in the sort of establishments in central London and elsewhere that he has been working in.

"What happened to him was that he has become addicted to alcohol and he has gone from a man who was highly motivated, pursuing a top level career, to a man who was sleeping on the streets with very few prospects.

"These were the actions of a man acting out of character. The better judge or indicator of his character is what he did in trying to intervene when Mr Sibanda was attacking Mr Malbec.

"There were numerous interventions on his behalf but he should, and he knows he should, have done more and that might have resulted in Mr Malbec surviving the attack.

"He will bear the responsibility for not having done more for the rest of his days because he knows he could have done and should have done."

Mr Aylott added that the clean-up was "spur of the moment and inept".

Hall's involvement was said by his barrister Peter Wilcock KC to have been "unplanned, unsophisticated and quick", and that he confessed to police "in detail" about the deleted phone data.

Giving evidence, Hall recalled how he had worked for many years in restaurants, hotels and in the army as a civilian chef, as well as in the agriculture industry as a harvesting supervisor.

He married and had children but health and accommodation problems led to his downfall, with a police caution for common assault in 2021.

That same year he split from his wife and ended up homeless, and then for a second time early last year. Hall told the court he had initially slept in churchyards and shop entrances before being placed in temporary accommodation.

Asked what it was like to sleep rough, he told the jury: "You don't know what to expect out there every time when you are putting your head down.

"You don't know what's going to come out of the pubs, what is going to come round the corner....You are in a community which doesn't want to draw attention to itself.

"Some of us sought shelter through tents and some of us didn't because tents are an instant beacon to others. You are drawing attention to yourself.

"I never had a tent. You are like an easy target."

At the end of the sentencing hearing, Judge James praised the "diligent and methodical" investigation by Kent Police, and singled out Det Con Lucie Fish and Det Con Alex Peacock for commendation.

He also commended the courage of the man who raised the alarm about Mr Malbec's death after Sibanda revealed beating him up, and the "important" work of Catching Lives in supporting the homeless community.

Both are now expected to be rewarded financially.