Trio guity of cannabis factory killing

4:08pm Tuesday 5th August 2008

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Two Feltham men have been found guilty of killing an illegal immigrant who was brutally tortured in a Bedfont cannabis factory.

Vietnamese Thanh Van Le, 31, and Cong Van Le, 48, both of Canterbury Road, were convicted by a jury of the manslaughter of 44-year-old Tran Nguyen on Friday following a four-month trial.

Father-of-two Mr Nguyen was repeatedly punched, elbowed, kicked, and thrown into a radiator by a group of thugs in a gang revenge attack at a property in New Road, Bedfont.

Quynh Van Huynh, 51, of Lambeth, south London, was also found guilty of manslaughter at Cardiff Crown Court. All three men were cleared of murder.

The four month trial revealed shocking details of Vietnamese drugs culture and underworld violence.

Mr Nguyen was severely beaten in November 2006 after being suspected by his drugs boss of stealing £40,000 worth of plants from a skunk factory he tended in Newport, South Wales.

His wife Pham Thi Thien was telephoned during his ordeal and told by one of the gang: “Be prepared to collect your husband’s corpse.”

The fatally injured victim was then driven back to the Royal Gwent Hospital where he was dumped unresponsive and unconscious and later died.

Thanh Van Le later told police: “This was how we taught someone a lesson in Vietnam,” but claimed they did not intend to kill him.

Mr Nguyen had arrived in Dover from Germany in the back of a lorry just two months earlier before finding work at the cannabis factory in Wales.

Three other men, Son Van Nhu, 24, of Canterbury Road, Feltham, Bac Phuong Nguyen, 30, of no fixed abode and Paul Harrison, 36, of Davenport Road, south-east London, were acquitted of all charges.

The jury of five women and seven men returned their verdicts on their fifth day of deliberations. Thanh Van Le, Cong Van Le, and Van Huynh will be sentenced on August 11.

After the verdicts were announced, the court heard Thanh Van Le and Cong Van Le are to be deported. The Home Office is considering deporting Bac Phuong Nguyen and Son Van Nhu.