Sentence increased for prisoner who killed his cellmate
A man who killed his cellmate while in custody awaiting trial had his sentence extended after the Solicitor General intervened.
Vitale Tanga (41), originally from Moldova and of no fixed address, has had his sentence increased by five years after the Solicitor General referred his case to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme.
The court heard that in September 2022, Tanga strangled his cellmate, Tajinder Kular, with a kettle cord.
Kular was discovered unconscious by officers and taken to the prison hospital. He died in October 2022 from complications arising from resuscitation and cardiac arrest, and ligature strangulation.
A postmortem found he had ligature marks round his neck, as well as bruising to his face and several broken bones in his neck.
At the time of the murder of Mr Kular, Vitale Tanga was on remand in prison awaiting trial for assault and under investigation for the unrelated murder of Alfred Mattox in 2021.
Vitalie Tanga was originally sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years for Mr Mattox’s murder. Then on 3 July 2025, following his trial for Mr Kular’s murder, he was sentenced to life with a minimum of 27 years and 6 months, to run concurrent with his previous sentence.
The Solicitor General Ellie Reeves MP said:
Vitale Tanga is a violent man, who murdered two men in brutal attacks.
He has not taken any responsibility for his actions and I welcome the court’s decision to extend his sentence after he killed his cell mate, keeping this dangerous offender off our streets and keeping our communities safe.
On 25 November 2025, the Court of Appeal extended Vitale Tanga’s sentence by 5 years to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 32 years and 6 months.