A knifeman who stabbed a university student to death on a train for just looking at him has been jailed for life.
Thomas Grant, 19, was travelling home for the summer holidays on a packed Virgin train when he was stabbed by 22-year-old Thomas Lee Wood.
Wood - who has 40 previous convictions including one for carrying a knife - was threatening his pregnant girlfriend on the train platform at Carlisle, Cumbria, when Mr Grant turned to look.
"What the f*** are you looking at?," Wood said to Mr Grant. "I will stab you in a minute."
Minutes later on the train, in a "senseless and unprovoked" attack, Wood plunged the knife into Mr Grant's chest, piercing his ribcage and heart, before going "berserk" as terrified passengers fled for their lives.
Mr Grant - who had just finished the first year of a history and Arabic degree - was on his way home to Churchdown, Gloucestershire, from St Andrews University on May 27 earlier this year. He had got off at Carlisle to catch a connecting train.
Described as a "model student", he had a bright future ahead of him, Preston Crown Court heard, and wanted to follow in Prince William's footsteps, studying at the same university and then becoming an Army officer at Sandhurst.
Jailing Wood for life, with a recommendation that he serve at least 21 years before he can apply for parole, Mr Justice Openshaw said: "It was just a look - a look that cost him his life."
Mr Grant's parents, Ken and Pat, said their son was simply minding his own business before he was murdered. "This is what makes his death all the more shocking and unforgivable," said Mr Grant.
"He had great potential to make a significant contribution to society, but this potential has been needlessly wasted."
