THE mastermind of a plot to kill a man in Burnley has been told that his life sentence is justified by some of the country’s top judges.

Luigi Dalli, 47, was said to have taken out a payday loan to murder Kurt Crawford, his ex-partner’s new boyfriend, who was living in Cog Lane at the time.

Prosecutors at his Manchester Crown Court trial told how he turned to another ex-girlfriend, Caroline Meighan, to recruit ‘hired thugs’ to kill Mr Crawford.

She was then accused of recruiting brothers Liam and Carl Johnson, neighbours of hers in the Ordsall area of Salford, to carry out the assignment.

Mr Crawford was set upon in the street with an axe and knives, suffering a serious injury to his abdomen, lacerations to his liver and a perforated small bowel, the court heard.

An investigation by officers in Lancashire and Greater Manchester led to the arrest and conviction of Dalli, of Blandford Road, Salford, and Meighan and the Johnson brothers, each of Chancel Avenue, Ordsall.

Dalli was given a life sentence, with a recommendation he serve a minimum of 15 years, after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.

Lawyers claimed the term for the offence, which dated back to June 14, 2015, was excessive.

But Judge Eleri Rees QC, Recorder of Cardiff, sitting with Lord Justice Simon and Mr Justice Stuart-Smith, sitting at the Court of Appeal in London, refused the appeal.

The Johnson brothers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.

But they were also convicted of the conspiracy to murder charge at trial and also jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years.

Meighan was convicted of conspiracy to commit wounding and was jailed for three years. And 17-year-old from Salford, alleged to have been Dalli’s right-hand man, was acquitted of all charges.

Speaking after the original case, Det Insp Martin Melvin, of Burnley CID, said: “Kurt Crawford was savagely attacked near to his home after Luigi Dalli hatched a plot to kill him and hired the Johnson brothers to carry out his scheme.”