10/11/2006

Man pleads guilty to stabbing student

A man who stabbed a student to death on a train has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Thomas Lee Wood, 22, from Skelmersdale in Lancashire admitted killing first-year student Thomas Grant, 19, from Glouestershire who had been attending St Andrews University.

At Preston Crown Court, the judge, Mr Justice Openshaw, who described the case as "truly shocking, sentenced Wood to serve a minimum of 21 years.

Wood had threatened the student on the platform of the station after he had caught his eye.

He had earlier torn up his train ticket and threatened to stab the conductor if he was asked for a ticket.

Wood had later stabbed Tom Grant as the train passed through Cumbria.

(SP/EF)

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