The family of a new father stabbed to death at a kick-boxing gym said today that justice had been served as his killer was jailed for life.
Charles Riddington, 37, and three other men “ambushed” George Barker, 24, at the Double K gym in Bexley on November 14, 2016 — less than a week after the birth of his first child, a baby girl. Mr Barker was stabbed 17 times over an alleged £20,000 debt.
Riddington travelled to Germany and South Africa on a fake passport for two years before being arrested in Cyprus.
At the Old Bailey yesterday, Judge Nigel Lickley sentenced him to life in prison for murder, with a minimum term of 19 years.
Mr Barker’s mother Julie Underwood told the Standard: “I rang the police every day that he [Riddington] was missing. I must have driven them mad.
“He acted like he was going to get away with it. I was glad he was put away for 19 years. I think that’s justice. He’ll stay in longer than that if I get any say in it.”
In court, Ms Underwood added: “We take her [Mr Barker’s daughter] to the grave sometimes where she points and says, ‘My Daddy, my Daddy’.”
Judge Lickley told Riddington there is a “child who will grow up without a father because of your actions”.
