Murderer of tourist gets life

The leader of an armed robbery gang was yesterday jailed for life at the Old Bailey for killing a German tourist in front of her husband. Alvin Black, 37, shot Johana Czardebon, 56, of Bamberg, in the face with a sawn-off shotgun as she drank coffee in the bar of the County Hotel, Bedford, while on a town-twinning visit in May last year.

The bungled raid on the hotel was part of a series of attacks by Black's gang, carried out in the town over two-years for which he was sentenced to 21 years to run concurrently.

"You are a ruthless, professional criminal who was prepared to use violence as and when you thought necessary," Judge Geoffrey Grigson told Black, adding that the murder of Mrs Czardebon was the"tragic culmination" of his violent career.

Black, of Bedford, had denied the murder.