Life for drugs 'execution' pair

Mr Marshall was killed at his isolated farmhouse

Two men who "callously executed" a father-of-three after he failed to settle a drugs debt, have been jailed for life.

Graham Sampson, 40, was found guilty on Wednesday of murdering Raymond Marshall at his isolated Staffordshire home.

Gun fanatic and drug dealer Wesley Dickens, 35, was convicted of the murder on Tuesday.

Dickens was also sentenced to nine years for the manufacture and supply of amphetamines.

The motive...was to a large extent Dickens' excitement from using guns

Chief Superintendent Geoff White

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Mr Marshall had been shot eight times in the head.

His body was discovered by his wife, in their home, at Mount Pleasant Farm, in Grindley, near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, last August.

Sentencing Sampson, of Brook Street, Welshpool, Powys, and Dickens, of no fixed abode, Mr Justice Cooke described the killing as cold-blooded and brutal.

He said: "This was a callous killing carried out in the victim's home in the middle of the night in a cold-blooded and brutal manner."

The court had heard Mr Marshall had been killed after he failed to settle a £1,600 drugs debt.

Raymond Marshall was shot eight times

During the trial, the jury was told Mr Marshall had been attacked on a settee at his farmhouse before being taken to an upstairs en-suite bathroom where he was killed.

Prosecutor Rex Tedd QC said: "In the bathroom, unarmed, half-clad and already injured, Raymond Marshall was executed.

"In all nine shots were fired, eight of which entered Marshall's head"

The court heard Sampson, a former Royal Navy sonar operator, and Dickens were involved in producing amphetamine and had gone to the farm to "settle some score" arising from that.

'Sinister obsession'

In a statement released after the verdict Mr Marshall's wife, brother and sister, said: "Whilst we are satisfied with the verdict, there is nothing that can turn back the clock or compensate us for the loss of Raymond."

Chief superintendent Geoff White, of Staffordshire Police, said both killers had been privately educated.

He singled out Dickens as being "particularly dangerous" and questioned whether a man with a "sinister obsession with firearms" should ever be released.

"The motive around this murder was partially money, but it was also to a large extent Dickens' excitement from using guns," he said.