Jail term for driver in shooting

Derek Stevens was shot dead at the wheel of his Land Rover

A Merseyside man involved in the fatal shooting of a father of three has been jailed for twelve and a half years.

The victim, Derek Stevens, 35, was chatting to his mistress on his mobile phone as he drove through Halewood when the bullet went into his forehead.

Carl Fury, 24, of Wood Road, Halewood, denied being the gunman but admitted driving the car from which his passenger fired the fatal shot.

His plea of not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter was accepted.

Liverpool Crown Court was told there was a history of hostility between the two men and Mr Stevens had been travelling behind Fury's vehicle on the evening of 5 January, ramming it just before the shot was fired.

Jailing Fury, the judge, Mr Justice King, said that he sentenced him on the basis that he knew his passenger had a loaded gun with which they intended to intimidate Mr Stevens but did not intend to kill him.

He had intended it would be fired in the victim's direction in a joint enterprise and there was the potential for things to go wrong, said the judge.

"The message has to go out that the use of loaded firearms albeit only to frighten but as part of a premeditated plan and a joint enterprise with others will not be tolerated in a civilised society."

At the time of the killing Mr Steven's long-term partner was eight months pregnant with his daughter.