TWO former lovers will be sentenced tomorrow after each admitted their role in the killing of Chester man Martin Ithell.
Last November a jury at Liverpool Crown Court found bouncer Scott Davidson, 23, guilty of murdering Mr Ithell, 49, of Boughton, at his Frodsham home on March 11 last year.
There was a hung jury in relation to the murder charge against his then-girlfriend and co-accused Rachel Horton, 20, from Little Sutton. But in a dramatic twist she pleaded guilty to manslaughter at a hearing in December.
Today both will be sentenced by trial judge Clement Goldstone QC, Recorder of Liverpool.
The jury concluded Davidson intentionally shot Mr Ithell in the heart after luring him to his Frodsham home on the false promise of having the money he owed him.
Davidson had borrowed £16,000 to pay bills and buy a Subaru Impreza car but had no means to repay the debt which had swelled to £26,000 due to the interest.
Horton was accused of being a party to a murder plan and of stabbing Mr Ithell in the neck after he had been shot.
Davidson was caught because the victim took two friends who waited in a nearby car. They were linked by an open phone line and heard a loud screech at the time he was shot. Then they saw the victim’s BMW car being driven past them with Davidson at the wheel.
The pair found the front steps of the house covered in blood and returned with a police sergeant after running to the nearby police station. An ‘hysterical’ Horton answered the door.
It wasn’t until some hours later that a police negotiator contacted Davidson and he agreed to surrender himself at Blacon Police Station with the body on the back seat of the BMW.
