Life sentence for tobacco robbers

The men were raiding a tobacco warehouse

Three men from York have been sentenced to life imprisonment for carrying out an armed robbery which ended in murder.

Christophe Padiglione was shot dead and warehouse owner Francis Lemal seriously wounded in the armed raid on a tobacco warehouse in Esch, Luxembourg, in 2000.

Keith Birkinshaw, 50, was found guilty of attempted murder and robbery at the Palais de Justice in Luxembourg City.

His son Edward, 29, was convicted of murder and armed robbery, and Glenn Dawson, 27, of murder.

Compensation order

They have been on remand in Luxembourg since November 2000 and each now faces 30 years in jail.

Presiding judge Prosper Klein also ordered nearly one million euros (about £660,000) to be paid in compensation.

During the 12-day trial last month, the father and son, both of Invicta Court, Foxwood, York, accused each other of being the killer.

The three Britons were identified after the attack by Mr Lemal, who survived only because a gun held to his head jammed after he had already been shot three times.

Mr Padiglione died from a single gunshot wound.

Glenn Dawson, of Cranfield Place, Foxwood, denied any involvement in the raid and the shootings, claiming he had stayed in the getaway car, sleeping off the effects of heroin.