Victim Richard Deakin's mother joins gun crime campaign
The mother of murdered businessman Richard Deakin, who was shot in his own bed by contract killers, has revealed she is to campaign against gun crime.
Mr Deakin was killed with a sawn-off shotgun on the morning of July 5, 2010, by David Harrison, who then fled the scene in a getaway car being driven by Darryl Dickens.
The pair, from Bilston, were sentenced to a total of 67 years in prison after a month-long trial at Birmingham Crown Court, with Harrison getting 37 years and Dickens 30 years.
Now, Mr Deakin's mother Carol, of Cheslyn Hay, says she wants to do whatever she can to make society safer by joining the fight to tighten gun controls.
"I can't believe we live in a society where people can get their hands on guns as easily as they can at the moment," she said.
"I want to do something to make society a safer place by getting rid of guns. If my son had ever told me he'd got a gun, I'd have reported him to the police myself.
"There's only ever one thing that's going to happen if you've got a gun."
She said that since the murder she was exposed to a world she knew nothing of, with guns prevalent amongst criminals conspiring to have Mr Deakin, who ran a Walsall skip hire firm, killed at his Burntwood home.
She added: "I always thought I was streetwise.
"But I lived in a little bubble and that bubble's been popped now.
"I'm exposed to all this evil and I never thought my family ever would be – it's a different world.
"The Government needs to tighten up gun laws because for this to happen to innocent people is wrong."
Gun crime was back in focus after 26 people died at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut. Ex-Home Secretary Jack Straw said: "The more you tighten the law, the more you reduce the risk."
