Richard Deakin killer fails in jail sentence appeal bid
Murderer David Harrison has failed in a bid to have his sentence for killing a Staffordshire father-of-two reduced.
The contract killer shot dead Richard Deakin with a sawn-off shotgun as he lay in his own bed.
He was convicted of murder in December 2012 but challenged his 37-year jail term at the Court of Appeal in London.
However judges yesterday ruled that his sentence for the 'carefully planned and professionally executed' murder was justified.
When originally sentenced Harrison, aged 64 and from Bilston, was told he would probably die in prison.
He also launched a bid to try and appeal against his conviction - but this was rejected at the same hearing.
Harrison has consistently denied having anything to do with the July 2010 killing, which shocked the Chasetown community.
Getaway driver Darryl Dickens was convicted alongside Harrison and given 30 years, however the hunt for the man who ordered the killing continues.
Black Country drug lord John Anslow - currently serving 29 years for drug dealing and escaping from a prison van before fleeing to Cyprus - was accused of organising it, but was found not guilty of murder last month.
Lord Justice Beatson told Harrison: "The minimum term is indeed a long one.
"This was a carefully planned and professionally executed professional contract killing in the victim's own home by a man with previous convictions for firearms offences."
Harrison's barrister Mr Adrian Keeling QC, in bid to get an appeal against his conviction heard by judges, told the Court of Appeal that identification evidence linking Harrison to the murder was 'weak'.
During his and Dickens' trial at Birmingham Crown Court, jurors heard that police informant Alan Cash identified Harrison from CCTV footage shown on BBC programme Crimewatch.
Cash recognised Harrison's limp and noted that his balaclava was sewn up at the mouth - an item Harrison had used before.
Mr Keeling said Cash's evidence was of characteristics, but not of a specific individual.
He added: "It is the prosecution taking an identification that was so thin it should have been excluded and bolstering it with almost an edifice of other material which does a great deal to prejudice Mr Harrison."
But Lord Justice Beatson retorted: "The case against Harrison was based on Mr Cash's recognition, supported by a wealth of other evidence."
Mr Deakin, 27, said goodbye to his fiancée Megan just minutes before she left the family home in Meadway Street with their two young daughters.
