Brett Rogers murder: Inmates 'told by God' to kill a killer

Two religious inmates who murdered a fellow prisoner have been jailed for life.

The pair killed Brett Rogers, 25, who had been jailed in 2016 for murdering his mother and her friend, in Essex.

Rogers, of Stansted Mountfitchet, was found strangled in his cell at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire in June.

Billy White, a Christian, and Muslim Gary Lindley prayed after they killed Rogers, Worcester Crown Court was told.

The pair, who admitted murder at a previous hearing, believed their actions would "exorcise a demon" from Rogers and "cleanse" him of his crimes, the court heard.

After praying, Lindley handed staff at HMP Long Lartin a note saying the killers had decided to "free" their victim from "darkness" and killed him on the afternoon of 7 June this year.

White, 24, was given a whole life tariff for the killing - carried out while he was already serving a life sentence for the 2015 murder of his partner.

Judge Robert Juckes QC heard White was jailed for at least 15 years at the Old Bailey in May 2016 after murdering his partner by stabbing her through the neck as she slept at their home in Hayes, west London.

Lindley, aged 42, was serving an indeterminate sentence after he was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court in 2007 for his part in a violent distraction burglary.

Lindley will serve at least 17 years of a life sentence for killing Rogers, who killed his mother Gillian Phillips and her friend David Oakes.

On the day of the killing, paramedics pronounced Rogers dead at 18:24 BST and while the wing was in lockdown, Lindley passed a note to a prison officer, the court heard.

In it, he wrote "I was ordered by the Lord My God to free Brett Rogers. I know you will not see it this way but that is between you and God. I am of sound mind. Please can I speak to the Governor."

The judge said White and Lindley planned Rogers' death about a week before attacking him.