Life for road-rage killer who shot man in face after cars collided

An armed motorist who murdered one car passenger and seriously wounded another in a "chilling" case of "road rage taken to its extremes", was jailed for life yesterday.

Lee Gardiner, 25, (right), a father-of-one from Tottenham, north London, told his victims "I've got something nice for you" before gunning them down on Bank Holiday Monday in May last year.

He shot the first one in the face, fracturing his jaw, and then pumped two bullets into the head of a second man, killing him instantly.

The car dealer then turned to two terrified bystanders who had witnessed the shooting and boasted: "Me a bad boy. Me a gangster."

Southwark Crown Court jury who tried him took less than two hours to convict him of murdering Ghanaian Benjamin Worae, 34, a father-of-three, and attempting to murder political refugee Kwame Davies, also 34, from Africa.

After the unanimous verdicts, John Bevan, for the prosecution, revealed that Gardiner had a criminal record going back to the early Eighties.

His convictions included one for wounding after blasting a man in the chest with a shotgun following a petty dispute over a stolen car radio.

At the time of the road- rage shooting, Gardiner had been remanded on bail for burglary and beating the home-owner over the head with an iron bar. He had recently been released from a two-year jail sentence.

Passing sentence, judge Gerald Butler QC told Gardiner: "It is a chilling thought that you murdered one man and attempted to murder another simply because they were in a car that was in collision with yours.

"It is apparent from your record and from these offences that you are a very dangerous man."

He said Gardiner would have to serve a mandatory life sentence for murder and a concurrent 15-year term for attempted murder.