A devastated man has told how he is constantly wanting to turn round and chat with his twin brother, who was stabbed to death in Norwich by a London drug-runner.
Eddie Stannard's pain was laid bare at Norwich Crown Court as Steve Stannard's killer Hassiem Baqir was jailed for 20 years and slammed by a judge for his 'callous indifference'.
Steve Stannard, 37, died after he was stabbed six times at his flat at Bowers Avenue, Mile Cross, on November 5 last year.
In a victim statement read out at yesterday's sentencing, Eddie said his brother was 'cruelly taken away from me'.
He said: 'This whole experience has devastated me, I will never get over this. For 38 years my brother has been pretty much always been by my side. Now he is gone. Who was given the right to kill him? No one. No-one should have taken my brother away from me.'
He added: 'I am always thinking about my brother, wanting to turn around and speak to him. He is not there. He never will be.'
Eddie said his family, including his mother and sister, were devastated by the death of his brother who he insisted 'did not deserve to be stabbed to death' regardless of how they had chosen to live their lives.
A statement read out on behalf of his mother Joy Brown, whose birthday falls on the same day as her son's death, said he 'wouldn't hurt a fly' and would 'never be forgotten'.
Sentencing Baqir, from south London, who had admitted supplying heroin and crack cocaine, Judge Anthony Bate said: 'It is plain from the pathology and surrounding circumstances of the attack that you intended to kill Steven. You were in deadly earnest from the outset. You showed a callous indifference to Steven's fate after he had been stabbed.'
Judge Bate said the motive for the attack was 'associated with the murky world of class A drug dealing in which you, Steven and his brother Eddie were all mired'. He added: 'It is an evil trade that blights and ends lives.'
Nic Lobbenberg QC, for Baqir, said the reality is that on November 5 last year one life was taken but another life, Baqir's, was 'thrown away'.
• Veron Antonio, 24, from Surrey, was found guilty of supplying class A drugs and failing to supply his phone pin. He will be sentenced at a later date.
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