A killer who called himself 'Psycho' has been found guilty of murdering an Indian student at random.

Kiaran Stapleton walked up to stranger Anuj Bidve, 23, in the street in Salford, Greater Manchester, and shot him in the head at point blank range.

Stapleton, 21, who was sporting a teardrop tattoo below his right eye, had admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but a jury rejected that argument and convicted him of murder.

Sentencing will take place tomorrow at a time to be confirmed.

Before the verdict was announced, Stapleton, wearing a grey Adidas tracksuit, jogged up the steps to the dock from the cells.

He looked around the courtroom and grinned before the jury foreman stood up.

Manchester Crown Court had heard how Stapleton "smirked or laughed" after he walked up to Mr Bidve and shot him in the head after asking for the time.

Stapleton later told a psychologist in prison that he picked out his victim because "he had the biggest head".

The defendant's callousness and audacity was stark in the days that followed while he remained at large.

First he booked into a hotel which overlooked the crime scene in Ordsall Lane to keep pace with the investigation and revel in the chaos he had created.

Then he went to a tattoo parlour and had a teardrop design placed below his right eye - a symbol used by some gangs to mark that the wearer has killed someone.

After he was arrested and charged with murder he made his first appearance at Manchester Magistrates' Court and gave his name as "Psycho Stapleton".

Mr Bidve was studying for a micro-electronics postgraduate qualification at Lancaster University after arriving in the UK last September and was spending last Christmas with friends in Manchester.