A TRICK or treater who murdered an Indian restaurant owner with an estate agent's For Sale sign in a racist attack has been jailed for life.

Daniel Palmer, 19, of Willsmere Drive, Northolt, ripped the 3ft wooden stake from a garden and cracked it across 59-year-old Quadir Ahmed's forehead on Halloween night.

Mr Ahmed fell back, smashing his head on the pavement and never regained consciousness.

Palmer, a trainee electrician, then ran off howling with laughter boasting he had broken Mr Ahmed's nose.

He launched his attack on Mr Ahmed after his gang was chased for throwing eggs at the Zhal takeaway restaurant in Eastcote village near Ruislip.

The group mimicked the accents of Mr Ahmed and his brother Abulish when they complained about the vandalism. Palmer then struck Mr Ahmed with the sign.

Alan Suckling QC, prosecuting, told Snaresbrook Crown Court: "He boasted he had broken Mr Ahmed's nose and all of them laughed."

Mr Ahmed was rushed to nearby Northwick Park Hospital before being transferred to a centre specialising in brain surgery in central London. He died on November 21. A post mortem found that he had a three centimetre cut to the left side of his forehead and internal bruising to his skull.

Palmer made no comment when quizzed by police last November. He denied murder but was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Jailing him for life judge David Radford told Palmer: "He was a wholly innocent victim of violence which you had inflicted upon him on Halloween night. You were mimicking their Asian accents and attempting to provoke them. This was an offence that was racially aggravated."

Palmer has been ordered to spend at least 12 years in jail.