A drug user who beat two men to death with a hammer before repeatedly stabbing them and setting fire to a flat to destroy evidence has been jailed for a minimum of 32 years.
Paul O'Shea was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey for carrying out the brutal double murder in King's Cross, London, in January, Scotland Yard said.
O'Shea, 37, an Irishman originally from Portlaoise, carried out the attack as he argued with the two men during a drug deal.
At around 5.45pm on January 2, he went to the flat of a small-time drug dealer, Moroccan Othamane Majdouline, 48, to buy Class A drugs.
O'Shea left and returned to the flat in Stelfox House, Penton Rise, 30 minutes later with a computer monitor, which he appeared to have tried to sell in exchange for drugs.
But he got into an argument with Mr Majdouline and his Portuguese friend Leandro Da Silva, 47, from Islington, and attacked them with a hammer before stabbing them.
Post-mortem examinations found he hit Mr Da Silva in the head with the hammer at least 10 times before stabbing him three times, once in the heart.
Mr Majdouline was hit on the head four times and stabbed three times in the neck and in his chest. A pathologist found both men died from massive head injuries.
After the horrific attack O'Shea tried to burn the flat down to hide the evidence, police said.
O'Shea, who lived in King's Cross, was arrested three days later. When he was charged he spat at police officers, saying: "Go and find the real person that did it."
Following the sentence, Detective Inspector John Marriott said: "The level of violence used by O'Shea was horrendous. Both victims were hit repeatedly with a hammer and suffered multiple stab wounds.
"O'Shea's reckless disregard for life was further emphasised by the fire he started at the flat, putting the lives of many others at risk in a cowardly bid to avoid justice."
O'Shea was also jailed for seven years for arson, to run concurrently with his life sentence.