JOHNNY CLAYDON

Johnny Claydon stabbed a man to death during a bungled drugs robbery then boasted to a friend that it felt 'better than sex'.

Johnny Claydon, 28, killed Ben Foster and stole £4,000 of cannabis which the victim was delivering for his drug dealer brother.

As the 22-year-old shop worker and builder lay dying, Claydon told fellow robber Kieran Thomas that stabbing him had felt 'better than making love, better than sex'.

Claydon later said he only meant to deliver a 'love lick' - a single stab wound to the side - but the wound severed a major artery and Ben bled to death.

Claydon, from Battersea, London, who was said to have been high on drugs and alcohol at the time of his boast, was convicted of murder and sentenced at Bristol Crown Court to life with a minimum of 20 years.

Thomas, 29, from Wallington, Surrey - who was serving a four-month suspended sentence at the time of the killing - was jailed for ten years for manslaughter.

The pair planned the robbery to settle a cocaine debt before fleeing to London, the court heard.

They had arranged to meet Ben's brother Jack, 20, in Bath on April 27 last year to buy the skunk, a notoriously potent form of cannabis. But Ben agreed to deliver the package instead.

Claydon stabbed Ben in the right side 'like a boxer in a ring dancing about and putting in a jab', according to witness Martin Harbour, a long-term customer of Jack's.

Another witness, Pamela Beamish, told the court: 'He kept laughing, which was chillingly nasty, and said he had enjoyed what he had done. I had never seen him so happy.'

Ben dialled 999 and was found by paramedics in a pool of blood but died in hospital of a severed aorta.

Claydon and Thomas fled with the bag of drugs but turned themselves into police in London several days later.

The court heard Claydon had previous convictions for grievous bodily harm and possessing offensive weapons, while Thomas had previously been convicted for robbery and assault.

Claydon, who has a personality disorder, was detained in a psychiatric hospital in Wandsworth, South London, for assessment after claiming he could not remember the attack.

But he escaped after cutting a hole in the perimeter fencing, sparking a nationwide manhunt.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Field said: 'Nothing I can say can be of comfort to Ben's family. He was delivering drugs but he was essentially a good lad who, I am confident, was set on leading a decent life in the future.'

Speaking outside Bristol Crown Court, Ben's mother Clare Wallace said Ben had only been at the scene due to 'his willingness to do things for others'.

She said: 'Ben had decided years earlier that his life would be better without alcohol and drugs and he had stuck by his resolve but did not judge others for their lifestyle choices.

'Ben was not perfect but he believed in the innate goodness of people.'

Ms Wallace added: 'I once believed that the world was beautiful, just and perfect, now this belief has been shattered.'

Jack Foster was jailed for eight months for drugs offences on the day of his brother's death. (Johnny Claydon)

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