THE family of Trevor Bradley from Ludlow branded his killer "sadistic" after a jury found he was responsible for the antique dealer's death 17 years ago.

Robin Stanislaw Ligus, 59, was found to be responsible for the death Mr Bradley, whose body was found in a burnt-out car near Oswestry, in April 1994 by jurors at Birmingham Crown Court.

They also found that Ligus had killed 57-year-old Brian Coles from Whitchurch, in October, 1994.

Ligus is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of a pensioner, Robert Young, also in 1994.

In a statement issued after the verdict, Mr Bradley’s family branded Ligus a “sadistic human being.”

The jury heard Ligus lured Mr Bradley to remote farmland in Melverley, near Oswestry, and then hit him over the head with an iron bar before putting his body into a car and setting it alight.

In confessions made to police in 2000, Ligus said he took £2,000 from Mr Bradley’s pocket after hitting him over the head. He said he went to Liver pool afterwards and used the cash to fund his heroin and cocaine addiction.

The unanimous verdict came after 14 hours of deliberation by the jury who had to determine that Ligus was responsible for the acts that led to Mr Bradley’s death.

But Ligus was cleared of involvement in the death of a third man, Bernard Czyzewska, whose body was found in the River Severn in Shrewsbury in November that year.

Prior to the month long trial Mr Justice Colman Treacy ruled that because of his mental state Ligus, a father-of-three from Shrewsbury, was unfit to plead to the charges.

Ligus, heavily bearded and tattooed, listened to the jury’s verdicts via video link from Woodhill Prison, in Buckinghamshire. He will be sentenced on July 29.

Mr Bradley’s body was discovered in April, 1994, lying behind the front seats of his Vauxhall Nova car, but his remains were so badly damaged he had to be identified through X-ray.

The well-known antiques dealer from Ludlow, was last seen in Leominster after he had visited the town’s bingo hall.

Mr Bradley’s body was exhumed in 2009 as part of a cold case review by West Mercia police and pathologists said he was likely to have suffered a broken collar bone and fractured skull before the fire.

In a statement Mr Bradley’s family thanked police for the investigation and it was very hard at the beginning to learn they had lost a brother in such a cruel way.

“We now know this was by a sadistic human being. We are glad that it has now finally come to an end.”

Detective Inspector Andy Parsons, who led the inquiry, refer red to the “wholesale confessions”

made by Ligus to cellmates, police and a psychologist.

“The result has proved that Robin Ligus was in fact a serial killer and not a serial confessor.

“His victims were vulnerable and were brutally killed in horrific circumstances".

During the trial, the jury heard a psychologist who had interviewed Ligus in 2000 was so concerned by his responses she warned the authorities.

Dr Caroline Logan interviewed the serial killer as part of a confidential project but felt Ligus was such an "imminent"

danger to those around him that something should be done.

Dr Logan told the jury Robin Ligus had an anti-social personality disorder with narcissistic and sadistic tendencies.

Ligus had told her he wanted to become Britain worst prison killer