A teenager who killed a pensioner by stabbing him in the heart has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years.

Daniel Rounce was found guilty by a jury at Leicester Crown Court on Monday after offering no account of how or why he killed 79-year-old Gerald Wickes in a “chilling” attack at his former partner’s house.

The 18-year-old claimed through his barrister he had acted out of panic while intending to rob Mr Wickes after following the victim’s former partner into the house on 22 February last year.

Judge Timothy Spencer KC said the murder was aggravated by significant levels of planning and premeditation, and the fact an elderly victim had been targeted in what should have been a safe space.

The judge told Rounce, of The Green, Markfield, near Leicester, he believed he had feigned mental illness in an effort to manipulate the justice system.

Judge Spencer told the teenager: “This killing took place in the living room of what in effect was his own home – a home that was invaded and violated by you.

“This was a truly wicked act. You were, in my judgment, deliberately targeting the elderly.”

Rounce had faced a trial of facts hearing at the same court last October after being ruled unfit to enter a plea, but he was later judged to be fit to face a jury.

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Judge Spencer accused Rounce of wanting “to see what you could get away with” by tricking psychiatrists after the murder, telling him: “I reject your explanation offered this morning that this was a killing in panic. It was not.

“You were in control of events. As soon as you were close enough to him, you plunged the knife into his chest. That was merciless.”

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He added: “When you were arrested by the police you said nothing. And that is a policy that continued right to the end, all the way to the jury’s verdict.

“The jury saw through it all. Until this morning you have not expressed a word of explanation and you have never expressed any show of remorse whatsoever.

“Your explanation that out of panic you intended to rob, perhaps to get some food, has a hollow ring to it.

“Ultimately this killing actually defies any explanation.”

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