Men sentenced for killing Leicestershire jeweller whose body was found by a Harborough district road

Thomas Jervis, 24, and Charles Mcauley, 20, were both sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday, September 10, after being found guilty of the 74-year-old’s murder. Jervis was ordered to serve a minimum of 33 years while Mcauley was ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years.

Callan Reeve, 20, who was found guilty of Mr Jogiya’s manslaughter, was sentenced to 16 years in prison at the Birmingham Crown Court hearing.

The three, who had previously admitted the kidnap and robbery of Mr Jogiya, were convicted following a five-week trial at the same court which reached its conclusion on August 8.

The trial had heard how Jervis, of Enderby Road, Whetstone, Leicester; Mcauley, of Gooding Avenue, Leicester; and Reeve, of Biddle Road, Leicester, were part of a gang who had spent weeks planning to rob a safe at Mr Jogiya’s jewellery shop in Leicester’s Belgrave Road.

On the evening of January 24 this year, the gang kidnapped the jeweller as he walked home from his shop and bundled him into a stolen van where Mr Jogiya was tortured to hand over the keys to his shop, the code for the alarm and the code for the safe.

CCTV showed that around 50 minutes after Mr Jogiya was kidnapped, a man dressed in a burka and pulling a shopping trolley entered into the shop. This person was seen to deactivate the shop alarm and go to the back of the shop where Mr Jogiya kept the safe, before emerging a little time later - seemingly empty-handed.

It was later discovered that, despite their meticulous planning, the gang had not realised the safe was on a 12-hour-time delay and therefore they could not get into the safe and to the Asian gold inside it.

Driving the terrified jeweller away from the area, the gang threw Mr Jogiya’s phone out of the window before dumping him near Leicester Airfield. Mr Jogiya was found the next morning and was pronounced dead at the scene.

He had suffered a total of 27 injuries including broken ribs, wounds to his face, hands and arms, and had died from a major brain injury caused by a severe assault to his head. In short, he had been beaten to death.

A six-month investigation into the death of Mr Jogiya saw more than 2,000 lines of enquiry carried out, 600 statements taken and more than 2,400 exhibits gathered.

This was worked on by 185 police officers and 65 police staff from across five different forces.

The detective who led the investigation, DCI David Swift-Rollinson said: “These men had planned to kidnap and rob Mr Jogiya, but it went tragically wrong. They launched a sustained and ferocious attack on Mr Jogiya which ultimately killed him.

“Today is the result of what has been an extremely intense six-month investigation with two men jailed for the murder of Mr Jogiya and one man for his manslaughter. My thoughts remain with the family of Mr Jogiya and I hope today helps them to feel that some justice has been served. I again thank them for the dignity, patience and co-operation they have shown throughout this nightmare.

“As before, I also thank the many residents and business owners in the Belgrave Road area for their help and co-operation during this tragic time and the many members of the wider public who assisted with our appeals and provided significant information in the case.

“And to all the police officers and staff who worked tirelessly on this case to bring the offenders to justice, I thank you for your exceptional efforts which saw this result reached today.”