Mother vows to see all of Richard Deakin's killers jailed
The mother of murdered businessman Richard Deakin has vowed that she won't rest until everyone involved in his killing is brought to justice.
Contract killers David Harrison and Darryl Dickens were jailed for life yesterday following a five-week trial.
Gunman Harrison was sentenced to a minimum term of 37 years and getaway driver Dickens to 30 after a Birmingham Crown Court jury returned unanimous verdicts on the Bilston pair.
Mr Deakin was shot in the chest and leg with a sawn-off shotgun while he lay in bed in his Burntwood home in July 2010.
Lord Justice Roderick Evans told 63-year-old Harrison, of Rainbow Street: "The likelihood is you will die in prison."
Dickens, 34 of Powell Place, was an "inferior participant" to Harrison the judge said, but the aggravating factor of careful planning cancelled that out.
Neither killer showed any emotion when the verdicts were read out.
The Deakin family celebrated outside court after the jury returned their verdicts following three days of deliberations.
But agreed with Lord Justice Roderick Evans who remarked that the murder went beyond just Harrison and Dickens.
"They deserve everything they got," said Mr Deakin's mother Carol. "But it's not the end – I won't rest until everyone involved has come to justice.
"We're hoping it's not too much longer.
"It's already been two-and-a-half years of hell for us, even though it just seems like yesterday that Richard was killed."
She added that she was "over the moon" with the verdicts and relieved that Harrison and Dickens were off the streets.
Staffordshire Police spokesman Peter Bate said a dedicated team of detectives continued to follow numerous lines of inquiry on the 27-year-old's murder.
Father-of-two Mr Deakin, who ran On Time Skips in Walsall, had become engaged to his partner Megan only the weekend before he died.
Miss Deakin – who did not attend the trial but gave vital evidence via video link identifying Dickens as the driver – was visiting his grave yesterday when the verdicts were delivered. She sobbed as his mother rang to saythe pair had been found guilty.
A number of arrests were made in connection with Mr Deakin's murder. A BBC Crimewatch appeal generated vital information including that of Harrison's criminal associate Alan Cash – now a police informant – who recognised the gunman on CCTV footage.
The footage showed a balaclava-clad Harrison entering the Deakin house in Meadway Street, Chasetown, walking through the garden gate and leaving just seconds after killing Mr Deakin.
The motocross fanatic's funeral was attended by around 300 people and he was buried with the ashes of his beloved dog Duke.
When sentencing Harrison and Dickens, Lord Justice Evans said: "You were paid by people who are still at large. It involved people way beyond you. How many people is difficult, almost impossible, to say.
"This was a carefully planned and professionally executed contract killing."
During the trial Dickens, who has 159 previous convictions, mostly for motoring offences, sought to play down his relationship with Harrison.
He said he did not know where his co-accused lived, despite Harrison's home being just a few hundred yards away from AD Skip Hire, which Dickens ran.
Phone records showed Harrison visited Chasetown on three separate mornings in the weeks before July 5 when he was plotting the murder.
Latex gloves similar to those worn by the gunman in the CCTV footage were discovered in Harrison's van, as well as £26,000 in bank notes – dated within two weeks of the murder – during a search of his second home in Folkestone.
Miss Deakin crucially spotted driver Dickens as the black Corsa he was driving pulled up while she was taking her and Mr Deakin's young daughters Elle and Jessica to school.
Detective Chief Inspector Darren Harding, who led the investigation which brought Harrison and Dickens to court, said Mr Deakin's killers were "cold-blooded and calculated".
He added: "It's very unusual for such a shocking, brutal murder to happen in Staffordshire.
"These men deprived two girls of their father and left a massive hole in his family's lives."
For full reports on the case, see Saturday's Express & Star
