Two women who admitted helping a family member after he had fatally shot another man have been jailed.
Diane Riley, 65, received a call from her grandson, 30-year-old Lewis Hutchinson, in the afternoon of 13 April last year, about 12 hours after he had killed 29-year-old Mihai Dobre in Paston, Peterborough.
After the shooting, Hutchinson made his way to a nearby traveller’s site where he hid for a few hours.
During his trial earlier this year, he told the jury: “I knew police would be everywhere, so I sat in one of the scrap cars for a few hours. Then went into one of the brick sheds, bungalows, for a few hours.”
Later that morning, he got a taxi into Peterborough town centre where he went to a pub, before using a phone box to call his grandmother – Riley – telling her he had been a “bad boy and hurt someone” and asked if she could pick him up from Peterborough to go back to her home in Skegness.
Riley, along with her daughter – Hutchinson’s aunt, Jeanie Stewart, 45, of Waddington Way, Skegness, – drove down to Peterborough to collect Hutchinson at about 3pm, before making the journey back to the seaside town.
Once back in Skegness, the pair provided Hutchinson with new clothing and trainers, and helped dispose of the items worn at the time of the offence.
The following day (14 April), at about 9pm, Hutchinson was called out of his grandmother’s home in Spirewic Avenue by armed police officers and arrested on suspicion of murder.
Riley and Stewart were also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
In police interview, Riley told detectives her grandson had called her and asked to spend some time with her, that he “had been a bad boy”. She claimed she didn’t know why but allowed it and made the journey to collect him from Peterborough.
She said he was in a “bit of a state” and went for a walk once they arrived in Skegness, also admitting that about an hour before police arrived at her home, Hutchinson told her he had shot someone, but it was an accident.
Today (Friday), the mother and daughter duo appeared at Peterborough Crown Court where they were each jailed for nine months after previously admitting charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Detective Constable Gareth Purdy, from the Beds, Cambs and Herts Major Crime Unit, said: “I hope this case shows the lengths we will go to get justice, particularly in such serious cases as murder.
“Riley and Stewart helped Hutchinson hide from police and conceal evidence, however we have been one step ahead and caught them out.
“Anyone who tries to pervert the course of justice will be put before the courts.”
On 5 June, Hutchinson was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 31 years, after being found guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit robbery following a trial at Peterborough Crown Court.
Christopher Pycroft, 40, of Crabtree, Paston, who admitted conspiracy to commit robbery, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison at the same court on 9 May.
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