A callous thug who beat dad Mohammed Abu Sammour and then reversed over him in his own works van as he lay unconscious has been jailed for 18 years.
, 22, was found guilty last month of murdering the 49-year-old as he worked as a security supervisor by reversing over him in a van at a housing development in Newarthill, North Lanarkshire, last October.
Pearson repeatedly punched and kicked Mohammed, knocked him to the ground rendering him unconscious, then kicked and stamped on his head before reversing the van over him.
When told his victim was lying behind the vehicle he said: “I don't care”.
His co-accused Ryan Hunter, 28, has also been caged for six years having previously pled guilty to culpable homicide.
The court heard that Pearson, Hunter and an 18-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, walked through the building site as a shortcut.
They saw Mohammed's Osprey works van and planned to steal it.
What they did not realise was that Mohammed was inside the van and sprang out and tried to chase them away.
However, he was hit first by the 18-year-old and then by Pearson. Both, the court heard, were wearing knuckledusters.
Mohammed was stamped on and knocked to the ground unconscious by Pearson.
All three piled into the van with Pearson driving.
He began reversing and Hunter told him that Mohammed might be lying behind the van and he replied: “I don't care."
A home owner in the partially completed housing development heard the sound of voices, a van revving, a thud and went out and found Mohammed lying in the roadway.
Mohammed’s widow, and mother of his four children, , 40, has revealed her husband was a “quiet, friendly man” who “always talked so positively about Scotland” and added: “I did not think that such a man could be murdered in this country.”
Devastated Fidaa says that when a police officer told her Mohammed had been murdered, four words embedded in her mind.
She said: “He told me they had found a dead body and a burned van. . Those words told me everything.
“My husband was dead and it was not a normal death. It was such a terrible shock.
She added: "I loved him, absolutely. He was everything to me. He was my family, my husband, the friend I turned to day and night. He was my Google, my fixer, the person I phoned if I was lost, my interpreter when I couldn’t find an English word.
“He really was everything. Every day is a challenge without him.”
