Josh Price: Killer's step-father had ALSO been jailed after hacking body into 12 pieces

David Watkins, aged 27, was ordered to serve at least 29 years behind bars on Wednesday after being convicted of stabbing Josh Price five times - once through the heart - when a £20 cannabis deal went wrong.

His mother Jenny Miah, aged 43, was also close to his 21-year-old co accused Jake Henson who was renting a room at her home in Stanton Road, Moseley when the drug dealer was killed in Treynham Close, Stowlawn on September 27 2014. He was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter by the jury.

Henson, also a cannabis smoker who left home at 19, said Watkins returned with him to her home after the stabbing.

Henson explained at Wolverhampton Crown Court: "He told his mum that he had beaten somebody up and needed a change of clothes because he had got blood on them. He had told me that if his mum asked I was to say he had beaten somebody up.

"She passed him some clothes that belonged to her boyfriend. They were baggy on him. He put the clothes he had been wearing in a bag and took them with him when he left. He was at the place for five or ten minutes max."

Henson, who had been two years behind 21-year-old Mr Price at Moseley Park School, moved out of Miss Miah's home into a hostel a couple of weeks afterwards. He later admitted witnessing the murder to his mother who told police.

Miss Miah was not called as a witness in the case by either prosecution or defence and is not believed to have attended any of the lengthy trial.

Her partner Dwayne Walker, now 34, was jailed for life, with a minimum 16 years before being considered for parole, at Wolverhampton Crown Court in Feb 2010 after strangling 31-year-old David Daly with a tea towel after the victim sold him the wrong computer.

He then hacked the body of the Darlaston DJ into a dozen pieces, several of which were later found in the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal while his head was discovered down a drain at the Moorcroft Drive Industrial Estate in Wednesbury.

This grisly crime also cost Miss Miah, now 43, her liberty after she cleaned up the Eastfield Grove, Moseley home where the murder took place - and did the job so thoroughly not a single clue was found by police at the address.

The mother of three tore off wallpaper, bleached skirting boards, removed carpets and also got rid of a garden shed where David Daly's severed head was wrapped in a plastic bag, the court heard.

Mr Christopher Hotten, QC, prosecuting, revealed that her efforts were so successful that when Walker's home was eventually examined by police officers, no scientific evidence was recovered.

There was nothing to suggest Mr Daly had met his death inside the house or that his body had been dismembered because the evidence had 'effectively been removed,' he said.

Miah admitted perverting the course of justice by helping to conceal evidence.

The body was finally discovered three months after Mr Daly from Quatford Gardens, Park Village, Wolverhampton, went missing on December 8, 2007.

Walker was brought to justice after police discovered he had used Mr Daly's mobile phone SIM card.

Meanwhile the family of Mr Price, who lived at Winston Churchill Court near the scene of his murder, have told of their heartbreak.

His partner Miss Megan Campbell, the mother of his son Khia, now aged four, said: "Nobody wants to be a single parent but I am left on my own through no fault of mine or Josh. He was an amazing, lovely father. He was my first boyfriend and I will always love him.

"We intended to get married. Khia keeps asking 'how can I get to heaven?' because he wants to be with Josh. He is now having counselling."

His father Simon Price added: "He was a good boy with a massive heart. He made me very proud."

His devastated mother Miss Joanne Evans declared: "I can't explain my feelings. I don't want to. That is the only way I am managing to cope and hold it all together."