An Indian-origin man was convicted guilty of killing his father by smashing a champagne bottle over his head. He was given a life term in prison in north London.
Following a trial at the Old Bailey court last month, Deekan Paul Singh Vig, 54, was found guilty and given a sentence for a minimum term of 18 years before being considered for parole at the same court on Friday.
Wayne Jolley, the Detective Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police who oversaw the murder investigation, said that Deekan Paul Singh Vig’s actions “left his family devastated, they must continue to deal with the loss of a loved one while he will spend a significant period of time in jail as a consequence of his actions.”
At Southgate, north London, where police were called to a disturbance in October 2021, Vig’s father, 86-year-old Arjan Singh Vig, reportedly shared a residence with him, according to the Met Police. Arjan was declared dead at the scene despite the efforts of emergency responders, according to the police.
The cause of death was determined by a post-mortem examination to be blunt force injuries to the head, according to the police. The tribunal later heard how Arjan’s body was discovered with his “head caved in” by police in his son’s bedroom, on the floor.
The Evening Standard newspaper reported that his son was naked and surrounded by roughly 100 bottles of Champagne, some of which were blood-stained.
As per reports, he said, “I killed my dad. I hit him over the head with a f***ing bloody bottle of Bollinger champagne.”
Jurors found that Vig had resided in their four-bedroom home for almost 40 years with his zoologist mother Damanjit Vig, 85, and his accountant father, Damanjit Vig. When Vig was five years old, the family left Uganda for the UK after Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of the South Asian population from the east African nation.
According to testimony given in court, Vig admitted to consuming 500ml of whisky earlier that evening after developing an appetite for booze during the COVID lockdown.
Police discovered 100 champagne bottles, ten whisky delivery boxes from Amazon, and a Talisker Scotch bottle that was empty on the bed at the crime scene.
On the second day of his trial, Vig admitted manslaughter after initially denying the murder, claiming that he had no actual intention of killing his father.
He was found guilty of murder, though, after the jury deliberated for less than a day.
