TWO MEN HAVE been convicted of plotting to kill the singer Joss Stone.
Junior Bradshaw, 32, and Kevin Liverpool, 35, both from Manchester were convicted of planning to rob and murder the soul singer at her home in Devon in June 2011.
Liverpool was jailed for life with a minimum of 10 years while Bradshaw’s sentencing has been delayed until a later date to allow for psychiatric reports to be carried out, BBC News reports.
“This may have been the crazy scheme of a crazy person… but it was a very real plan,” Judge Francis Gilbert told Liverpool at his sentencing at Exeter Crown Court in England earlier today.
The sentencing came after a jury took just over four hours to reach a unanimous verdict on charges of conspiracy to rob and to commit murder. The defendants had denied the charges.
During the trial last month, the court heard that on 13 June 2011 the two men set off from their home in Manchester with a samurai sword, knives, a hammer, black bags and gloves bound for Stone’s house in Devon.
They were arrested at around 9am after driving slowly a few miles from the singer’s home where they stopped a postman and showed him a small photograph of Stone.
Police had earlier spoken to them in the city of Gloucester after their vehicle was severely damaged when it collided with railings and a stationary digger as they drive out of a motorway fuel station.
Handwritten notes found in the suspects’ car made reference to “decapitate,” another read “Jocelyn RIP” and a further note said: “Once Jocelyn’s dead … find a river to dump her.”
The motive for the plot wasn’t clear, but prosecutors said the men may have targeted Stone for her money or because they disliked her links with the royal family whom she had previously sung for.
Stone, 25, testified during the trial that she had not become aware of the plot until after police had arrested the two men.
“Apart from someone (police) coming around to say someone is trying to kill me, it was a really nice day,” she told the court last month.
- with reporting from AFP and Associated Press
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