The man responsible for a murder which shocked Bristol has been found dead in prison, Bristol Live can reveal.
Lee James, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of Bijan Ebrahimi, died at HMP Long Lartin last week.
An investigation into his death is underway, and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.
While an inquest is yet to formally conclude a cause of death, Bristol Live understands there are no suspicious circumstances to the death and no other parties were involved.
In a brief statement, a Prison Service spokesperson told Bristol Live: "HMP Long Lartin prisoner Lee James died in custody on 16 December.
"The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed," she added.
James was just a couple of weeks away from his 45th birthday, and had been serving a life sentence since November 2013 for the brutal murder of Bijan Ebrahimi.
James lived in Capgrave Crescent in the Broomhill area of Bristol, and led a mob that terrorised Mr Ebrahimi in his flat, falsely accusing him of a being a paedophile, because he was taking photos out of his window - something Mr Ebrahimi had been advised to do by police and council workers to document the anti-social behaviour against him.
One night in June 2013, James beat Mr Ebrahimi to death, dragged his body to open ground around the corner and set his body on fire, along with accomplices.
The 44-year-old was jailed for life with a recommendation he should serve at least 18 years, while another neighbour, Stephen Norley, was given a four year jail term for assisting an offender, in what the judge at the time described as an 'act of murderous injustice'.
The case shocked Bristol, and much of the country - and led to a series of investigations into the conduct of and failings by Avon and Somerset police and Bristol City Council.
Mr Ebrahimi, a disabled Iranian refugee, had been bullied and abused by his neighbours for years, and regularly reported anti-social behaviour against him to police and council housing officers.
But with what a series of inquiries later found, his complaints were not dealt with properly by police or council staff because of structural and institutional racism in the response to Mr Ebrahimi.
Two and a half years after the murder, PC Kevin Duffy and PCSO Andrew Passmore were convicted of misconduct in public office and were jailed for their failings in responding to Mr Ebrahimi's calls.
A total of four police officers were sacked as a result of the investigations into the way Mr Ebrahimi was dealt with.
A separate investigation found Bristol City Council guilty of institutional racism in the way it dealt with Mr Ebrahimi, but to date no housing officers or senior managers have been disciplined for their part in the failings.
One senior manager did lose his job over the Ebrahimi scandal, however. In February 2019, a major investigation into institutional racism within Bristol City Council by Bristol Live published an email correspondence from one of those managers closely involved in the Ebrahimi case.
Just a week or so after the findings that the council were institutionally racist and had failed Mr Ebrahimi, Stuart Pattison wrote an email joking with colleagues to try to have 'no more deaths please', while he went away on holiday.
The family of Bijan Ebrahimi have worked with the Bristol organisation Stand Against Racism and Inequality (SARI) in the years since their brother's brutal murder, and succeeded in changing a lot of processes within Avon and Somerset police in the wake of the case.
However, SARI warned just last month of a repeat of a similar case to Bijan's amid a rise in race hate crime across the city.
SARI sounded the alarm that “another Bijan Ebrahimi could still happen” at a meeting of city health leaders last week.
