Execution killing of Richard Deakin shocked a quiet suburb

It was a crime that shocked the community. Richard Deakin, a father-of-two living in Burntwood, a largely suburban, peaceful area of Staffordshire, was gunned down execution-style by a balaclava-clad hitman wielding a sawn-off shotgun.

It was a calculated, clinical murder and "carefully planned and professionally executed", as the judge told David Harrison and Darryl Dickens today.

CCTV released later by police only added to the heinous nature of the crime.

• Life term for two guilty of murdering businessman Richard Deakin

It showed the gunman casually entering Mr Deakin's Chasetown home through an unlocked back gate and emerging just seconds later, having shot him in the chest and legs. That gunman was Harrison and his getaway driver – in a black Corsa – was Dickens.

Both men have protested their innocence since being arrested in January this year and the case against them both hinged on two vital identification witnesses.

Megan Deakin left the house she shared with her new fiance and their two young daughters, Ellie and Jessica, shortly before 8.30am. She saw the car containing Harrison and Dickens, which had briefly pulled up outside the home.

At the time she didn't take too much notice, but later that night, after she had been through the indescribable trauma of finding out her fiance had been murdered, a flashback struck her like a lightning bolt.

She sat down with her thoughts for the first time and started shaking and couldn't get any words out – she remembered she had seen a car and seen a driver.

Miss Deakin made notes there and then and gave a more detailed account to police the following day. She later said in court: "He looked directly at me at one point, I've never forgot that face."

Dickens, aged 34, and, like Mr Deakin, a skip hire firm manager, told Birmingham Crown Court he had never even been to the town where the killing was carried out.

He said that between 8am and 9.30am on the morning of Mr Deakin's murder he was at his workplace in AD Skip Hire, in Bilston, and was nowhere near the crime scene in Staffordshire.

And, in a claim backed up by Dickens' solicitor, the killer claimed he then drove to West Bromwich Magistrates' Court for a trial relating to alleged motoring offences.

But, crucially, prosecutor Mr Michael Burrows successfully convinced the jury it would have been possible to drive from Chasetown to AD Skip Hire for 9.30am, when records show Dickens received a call, before driving to West Bromwich.

Dickens also sought to play down his relationship with Harrison, denying knowing where his accomplice lived – just a few hundred yards away from his AD Skip Hire business – despite knowing him for eight years. The court heard Harrison and Dickens spoke on the phone 19 times in June and July 2010, while on the day of the murder Dickens' phone received 16 calls and one text between 7.49am and 9.28am, none of which were answered or replied to.

Harrison's guilt seemed largely to hinge on the evidence of his one-time criminal associate Alan Cash.

Mr Cash told the court he had "no doubt" that it was Harrison who was captured in CCTV footage. He had recognised Harrison, 63, after the images were screened during a BBC Crimewatch appeal in December 2010.

Mr Cash said he could tell by the gunman's build, his posture and the fact he wore a balaclava with the mouthpiece sewn up – a trademark of Harrison's so as to hide the fact he has few teeth. Police arrested Harrison almost a year on from the shooting on June 7, 2011.

He was released on bail but police installed recording equipment at his two homes in Bilston and Folkestone.

A search of Harrison's van found blue latex gloves – again something he often wore while committing a crime, according to Mr Cash – which looked strikingly similar to the ones seen on the gunman in the CCTV images.

At his Folkestone home police found more gloves, wigs, masks and almost £26,000 in cash.

The prosecution believed that was the money Harrison was paid to kill Mr Deakin, but he told them it was from the sale of a car, a claim the jury today decided was a pack of lies.