A fugitive from German justice who beat a homeless man to death behind an Ilford cemetery last year was jailed for 24 years today.

Jaswinder Singh, 60, was sentenced at The Old Bailey for attacking 31-year-old Harbarjan Singh and his friends with a metal bar as they slept rough behind the cemetery in Buckingham Road.

The unemployed builder from India had lay in wait for the victims to get revenge for being beaten up a week earlier.

At the time of the murder, Singh was wanted by the German authorities for hitting his partner in 2000.

Prosecutor Zoe Johnson said: “It seems the deceased got the better of him on that occasion.

“He had been beaten, publicly humiliated and was swearing revenge.”

On September 8 he called police to try and get them to arrest Harbarjan Singh and his friends Harteerth Singh and Jit Singh.

When that failed he waited until the three men went to sleep behind commercial premises next to St Mary’s cemetery.

Jit Singh told police that he was in a deep sleep when he was hit hard on his head.

“He woke up screaming and saw the defendant hitting his head with a three to four foot long piece of wood,” said Miss Johnson.

He spent the next 12 days having treatment for a fractured jaw and a brain haemorrhage.

The third victim, Harteerth Singh, was found with severe head injuries in the cemetery, and police soon realised the incidents were linked and began a systematic search, where they found Harbarjan Singh dead on a mattress.

Jailing him for life with a minimum of 24 years before parole, Judge Richard Hone QC said that Singh had a “tendency to explosive and disruptive violence”.

“You are a bulky man and have a propensity for violence. Yourself against three vulnerable persons gave you a major advantage.”

Singh denied murder and two counts of attempted murder. He was convicted of all three counts after 11 hours deliberation.