Albanian jailed in Britain

TIRANA, May 9 – A convicted killer caught with a loaded gun outside Tony Blair’s home has been jailed for five years and warned to expect deportation. Albanian illegal immigrant Vladimir Kendella, 57, attempted to dump his pistol in the road moments before his arrest just yards from the former Prime Minister’s London residence. It later emerged he had spent eight years in prisons and mental hospitals in Germany after shooting dead a compatriot and being convicted of murder. Following his release from that sentence and deportation back to Albania, he travelled to the UK in 2005, remaining in the country despite his asylum bid being rejected.
At Southwark Crown Court today, Judge Christopher Hardy gave Kendella a five year prison sentence – the minimum term for his offences – and recommended he be deported upon his release. Sentencing has repeatedly been delayed since Kendella’s conviction by a jury last December to allow detailed psychiatric assessments to take place, with reports suggesting he has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia since the age of 25. Despite recommendations from two doctors that he should place Kendella in secure psychiatric hospitals for an interim period, Judge Hardy said he had decided that ‘the interests of justice are best served by a sentence of imprisonment.’
Kendella was arrested on December 12, 2009, after police carried out what they thought was a routine traffic stop.