A drug dealer who stabbed a teenager to death just yards from a police station has been jailed for at least eight years.
Kandeepan Balasubramaniam, 22, sliced open the stomach of 19-year-old Craig Marshall in a petty dispute over cannabis.
As he fled for his life Mr Marshall, of Meredith Tower in Hanbury Road, Acton, was stabbed again in the back.
The victim managed to stumble in to Acton police station before collapsing into the arms of his best friend.
Balasubramaniam, who has a previous conviction for carrying a knife, was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection today.
Craig's mother, Sharon Marshall, spoke of her grief, she said: "I feel that half of me has gone. I will never be whole again.
"Craig loved life and everyone in it and they loved him. Me and my family now have a life sentence.
"I cry every night thinking all the time that he should be with us and not in a grave. All I can do is speak to him when I visit his grave.
"The person that has done this to my family still has a life. He has ripped ours apart and I will never forgive him for that."
The Old Bailey heard the dispute started when Mr Marshall refused to pay for cannabis he bought from Kandeepan and his brother Sanjee, 20.
They had already clashed in the high street when Mr Marshall was confronted by the brothers near Rufford Tower in Lexden Road, Acton, on September 25.
The victim was stabbed during a scuffle in front of his best friend Skye Rahim and another girl.
Prosecutor Michael Worsley QC said the wound was so bad that it was 'remarkable' that the victim was able to run to Acton police station.
Craig died in hospital the following morning, September 26 last year.
Balasubramaniam, who arrived in the UK in 1996, was cleared of murder on the basis of provocation but convicted of manslaughter after jurors rejected his claim that he stabbed him first by accident and then in self defence.
Kandeepan, of Rufford Tower in Lexden Road, Acton, had been given a warning for carrying a bicycle chain in the street in December 2003.
He was convicted of possessing an offensive weapon, a knife, near his home on October 2005..
Detective inspector Steve Smith, of Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said: "I hope this prison term will go some way to allowing the family of Craig to come to terms with what has happened."
