Skegness grandmother and aunt helped Peterborough murderer get rid of clothes worn in shooting
A grandmother who helped her grandson after he shot and murdered a man has been jailed.
30-year-old Lewis Hutchinson "accidentally" shot 29-year-old drug dealer Mihai Dobre in Paston, Peterborough, in April last year.
12 hours later on the morning of 13 April, Hutchinson called his grandmother Diane Riley, 65, to tell her he had been a "bad boy and hurt someone".
He asked Riley if she could pick him up from Peterborough to go back to her home in Skegness.
Riley, along with her daughter, Hutchinson's aunt - Jeanie Stewart, 45, took Hutchinson back to the Lincolnshire seaside town from Peterborough.
They then got rid of what he wore while committing the offence, before providing him with new clothing and trainers.
On 14 April, Hutchinson was dramatically arrested at his grandmother's home in Spirewic Avenue by armed police officers and arrested on suspicion of murder.
Riley and Stewart were also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Riley told officers she did not know why she had agreed to pick up Hutchinson, and added that he was in a “bit of a state” once they arrived in Skegness.
She admitted that about an hour before police arrived Hutchinson told her he had shot someone, but it was an accident.
On Friday, the mother and daughter were jailed for nine months at Peterborough Crown Court after previously admitting charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Detective Constable Gareth Purdy, from the Beds, Cambs and Herts Major Crime Unit, said: “I hope this case shows the lengths we will go to get justice, particularly in such serious cases as murder.
“Riley and Stewart helped Hutchinson hide from police and conceal evidence, however we have been one step ahead and caught them out."
In June, Hutchinson was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 31 years, after being found guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit robbery following a trial.
His sidekick Christopher Pycroft, 40, admitted conspiracy to commit robbery and was sentenced to five years and three months in prison in May.
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