LONDON – A 21-year-old “psycho” Briton charged with the unprovoked Boxing Day shooting of Indian student Anuj Bidve in Salford today pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but not guilty to murder.
Bidve’s family members travelled from India to attend the ‘plea and case management hearing’ at the Manchester Crown Court.
Kiaran Stapleton, who at an earlier court hearing in January had described himself as ‘Psycho Stapleton’, entered a plea of “guilty to the manslaughter of Anuj Bidve on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but not guilty to murder.”
The plea was not accepted by the Crown, and there will therefore be a murder trial starting June 25, 2012, official sources said.
Bidve, a student of Microelectronics at Lancaster University, was walking with friends in Salford when he was shot in the head at close range.
In a statement, the Bidve family today said: “We have made the journey from India to the United Kingdom because it was very important to us to hear, in person, Kiaran Stapleton’s plea”.
They added: “This is the first time we have returned to the UK since Anuj was taken away from us on Boxing Day of last year, and the first time we have come face-to-face with the man charged with his murder, so clearly this is a very emotional and difficult time for us.”
