A SYDENHAM killer has today been jailed for life following a brutal attack on two brothers 13 years ago.

Tuggie Phillips, aged 42, of Ridgewell Close, attacked the men in their Hackney home, bludgeoning 41-year-old Stephen Bailey with a heavy object and stabbing his brother Paul.

Phillips, who was extradited from Amsterdam to stand trial for the 1999 crime, had confronted his victims after a woman who had gone into their flat carrying drugs failed to return.

Prosecutor Mark Heywood had told jurors that Phillips was "prepared to stop at nothing to get what he wanted, even if he had to kill".

After searching the flat with another man, an altercation took place, leading to Phillips stabbing Paul Bailey, 39, and hitting Stephen Bailey with a heavy object.

Paul Bailey dialled emergency services using a phone which may have been dropped by his attackers, telling them: "I have been stabbed. I'm in a bad way."

Stephen Bailey died in hospital of head injuries 16 days later, but his brother survived. Both men had been drug addicts, the court heard, often smoking heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis.

Jurors at the Old Bailey took just one day to reach their guilty verdicts.

Sentencing him today, Recorder of London Peter Beaumont told Phillips he had committed “serious violence in the course of which you are responsible for taking the life of another and stabbing a man in the chest with a knife.”

Phillips must spend a minimum of 15 years in jail for the murder.

He was also sentenced to 12 years for attempted murder, to run concurrently.