THE family of a student who was shot dead by a stranger who labelled himself Psycho said they would never recover from "this dreadful act" as the killer was jailed for life with a minimum of 30 years.

Kiaran Stapleton walked up to Anuj Bidve, 23, in the street in Salford, Greater Manchester, and shot him in the head at point blank range in the early hours of Boxing Day last year. Stapleton laughed as he stood over the body of his victim, who had arrived in the UK to study micro-electronics at Lancaster University.

Stapleton, 21, had admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but a jury at Manchester Crown Court rejected that argument and convicted him of murder.

Mr Bidve's relatives had flown from India to sit through the trial and yesterday extracts from a statement written by his father, Subhash Bidve, on behalf of the family were read out.

It spoke of the irony of Mr Bidve choosing the UK as a place to study rather than the United States and Australia because the family considered it safer.

His father wrote: "Everyone in the family was so proud of him. He was the first Bidve boy to go abroad to study.

"The journey was Anuj's dream and his future. He looked like he was loving his course, the only thing he complained about was the weather.

"Our life fell apart on December 26. Anuj was the most gentle person you could ever meet.

"We will never recover from this dreadful act."

The judge, Mr Justice King, paid tribute to Mr Bidve's family for the dignified manner they had shown during the trial and said the court "appreciated the anguish" the experience must have caused, not least listening to the meticulous psychological and psychiatric evidence and the lack of remorse shown by the defendant.

Mr Bidve was in Manchester with a group of friends. They left their hotel in Salford to queue early for the sales when their paths crossed Stapleton's.

The killer walked across the road and repeatedly asked for the time. When someone finally answered he pulled a handgun out of his pocket and fired one shot to Mr Bidve's left temple.

Stapleton told a psychologist in prison that he picked out his victim because "he had the biggest head", the court heard.

The day after the murder he booked into a hotel which overlooked the crime scene in Ordsall Lane. He later went to a tattoo parlour and had a teardrop design placed below his right eye – a symbol used by some gangs to mark that the wearer has killed someone.

After he was arrested and charged with murder, he made his first appearance at Manchester Magistrates' Court and gave his name as Psycho Stapleton.

Mr Justice King told him: "This was no impulsive act on your part. It was a piece of cold-blooded controlled aggression."

He said Stapleton had showed a "most callous disregard" in laughing and smirking after he gunned down Mr Bidve and also during the trial.

"You have behaved in a way demonstrating that you are positively boastful about having killed Mr Bidve," the judge said.

Stapleton nodded before he was led from the dock.

The judge noted his medical condition of an anti-social personality disorder but said in his view that did not in any way lower the culpability.

Stapleton would only be released after 30 years if a parole board was satisfied he no longer posed a risk to the public and would be on life licence.

Mr Justice King said he regarded the defendant as "a highly dangerous young man".

The only mitigating factor for Stapleton was his age and the history of his upbringing in "a disturbed family environment", he said.