Brothers guilty of hate crime murder 42 years on after police bugged their cars

Two brothers have been found guilty of killing a civil servant 42 years ago during a spree of gratuitous violence against gay men.

Michael Stewart, 57, and Anthony Stewart, 60, were just 15 and 18 when they set upon Anthony Littler as he walked home in East Finchley, north London, on May 1 1984.

Mr Littler, 45, was hit twice over the head with a blunt weapon and was found mortally wounded half an hour later, still with his briefcase, £80 cash and credit cards.

Within minutes of the attack, Michael Stewart had anonymously called for an ambulance from a phone box, but a search for an injured man was called off after he hung up.

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Half an hour later, Mr Littler was found by members of the public lying in a pool of blood in an alleyway having suffered a “catastrophic” brain injury.

By the spring of 1984 the Stewart siblings and their friends had made a “hobby” of targeting lone men who they believed to be gay, jurors were told.

But during house-to-house police inquiries, they claimed to be at home at the time of the attack on Mr Littler, with binman Anthony Stewart insisting he never used the alley.

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Despite an appeal on BBC Crimewatch and ITV ’s Police 5, no meaningful leads were identified and the case remained unsolved for decades, the Old Bailey heard.

The breakthrough came on the 29th anniversary of Mr Littler’s death, when the defendants’ younger brother Daniel, who was 10 at the time, came forward to police after a family falling-out.

He told officers his older brothers had confessed to the killing and boasted about being involved in “queer bashing”, jurors were told.

Years after the killing, Michael Stewart had also admitted his guilt to a girlfriend and even showed her where it happened, the court had heard.

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In 2022, police reopened the investigation and deployed covert investigative techniques against the brothers, bugging their cars and Michael’s home.

Anthony was said to be a man of few words but Michael proved to have a “loose tongue” and bragged about what he did in 1984, the court heard.

After an Old Bailey trial, a jury deliberated for less than three hours to find them guilty of murder on Monday.

Senior Crown prosecutor Samantha Yelland said investigators had faced “challenges” bringing a case, with the loss of key evidence, including a potential murder weapon.

The “unusual” decision to deploy covert tactics was made in the absence of other evidence to prosecute the historic hate crime, she said.

After the guilty verdicts, Ms Yelland told reporters: “I’m so pleased that we’ve managed to get justice all these years later for Anthony Littler.

“It’s never right that someone dies in these circumstances, in particular in a hate crime. I’m glad that we’ve been able to get justice for his family.”

Detective Chief Inspector Neil John, of Scotland Yard, said: “Anthony’s life was suddenly cut short when he was killed in a brutal attack by two teenagers who we now know had a clear propensity for the most sickening kind of violence.

“They targeted Anthony because he was alone, defenceless and walking down a dark alley in which they knew no-one would see them carrying out their horrendous assault.

“They lay in wait for someone to cross their path, and tragically for Anthony he became their unsuspecting victim.

“We know Anthony’s murder has continued to cause his family pain all these years later, and we are pleased that they now know who was responsible for his death.”

During their trial, prosecutor John Price KC had described the events leading up to Mr Littler’s death.

The real ale enthusiast had spent the evening at a pub in Carshalton, Surrey, at a meeting of the Ponds Branch of The Society for the Preservation of Beer from the Wood.

He arrived at East Finchley Tube station at 12.18am on May 1 and walked down a narrow alleyway, where he was attacked.

Mr Price said the assailants lay in wait and “ambushed” Mr Littler, immediately striking him over the head, even though there was no evidence they knew their victim.

He suggested they may have panicked and fled the scene without going through his pockets when it became clear from the amount of blood that they had killed him.

Late resident Edward Dyer had been walking his dog and heard a loud shout which “sounded like a cry of pain”, jurors were told. About half an hour later, Annalieze and James Hainge found Mr Littler lying injured in the alleyway as they walked home from the station.

Mrs Hainge ran to call emergency services from a phone box while her husband stayed with Mr Littler.

He had two skull fractures and a “catastrophic brain injury” from which he died at the scene.

Mrs Hainge’s call to emergency services had been the second 999 alert from a public phone kiosk, jurors were told.

At 12.22am, an unknown person had called an operator and asked for an “ambulance – quick”.

He told her: “I can’t stop, just get an ambulance to East Finchley station, there’s a man hurt outside the station.”

London Ambulance Service recorded the caller saying the casualty was “bleeding heavily” before putting the phone down.

The call handler had noted the male seemed “abnormally concerned over the matter”, was “well spoken” and had a “young sounding voice”.

Station staff searched the area and found no trace of a bleeding man so the incident was stood down, the court was told.

Mr Price told jurors that given the timing of the call, the unknown person must have been there when Mr Littler was attacked but gave “wholly inaccurate information”.

He said: “The prosecution submits that 42 years later, the evidence now available shows that it was Michael Stewart who had made that first 999 call at 12.22am and then hung up without giving the operator his name or the information she needed.”

Both defendants, from north London, who declined to give evidence, had denied involvement.

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After the guilty verdicts, the brothers were remanded into custody to be sentenced on July 3.