Laughing murderer who fled to Shrewsbury jailed for 20 years

Sean Bulle, 21, had been laughing and joking with father-of-one Paulius Petrasiunas, 24, last July but after being annoyed by his friend taking a phone call stabbed him in the chest leaving him to die in the hallway of a block of flats in Wolverhampton.

Bulle, from Heath Town, fled the scene in Chervil Rise but was traced to Shrewsbury after a manhunt and was in possession of a bag that had traces of the victim's blood.

He then concocted several different stories about his friend's death including they had been play fighting with knives, he'd discovered his friend after an epileptic fit so could not have killed him and also feigned a memory black out.

West Midlands Police used CCTV, forensics and the brave testimony of Petrasiunas' friends to build a case against Bulle who was found guilty of murder at Stoke Crown Court in December.

This week Bulle was sentenced to life with a minimum 20 years.

Detectives were determined to find the murder weapon after seeing Bulle casually walking away from the scene on CCTV with what looked like a knife in his tracksuit bottoms.

After several months viewing hundreds of hours of CCTV footage detectives pinpointed an area of land it could have been dumped. The hunting knife was found during a fingertip search which led to a pile of rubbish between a fence and wall with forensic analysis showing it contained the victim's blood.

Detective Sergeant Damian Forrest, from West Midlands Police homicide unit, said: "This was the senseless killing of a young man.

"Bulle seemed to have become annoyed about a phone call Paulius had taken and then lashed out with the hunting knife. It left Paulius with serious chest injuries and he died within seconds. Sadly the aftermath of this attack was witnessed by the partner of Paulius and his close friends, who all bravely gave evidence at the trial.

"Despite what he'd done Bulle was captured calmly walking away and then fled the area. He was quickly identified as the prime suspect and through intelligence which came in following our appeal to locate him he was arrested within two days of the attack.

"He provided different accounts to what he claimed happened but through the diligence of our staff we reviewed a large haul of CCTV and collated strong evidence."

He added: "This helped create a clearer picture of what went on and our determination was rewarded when we were able to find the murder weapon.

"Bulle has now rightly been convicted of murder and will face many years behind bars."