Barry Dawson, who was a grandfather, was shot through the living room window of his terraced house in Stanley, County Durham, on 5 April.Following a trial at Teesside Crown Court which concluded in October, Sean Reay, 30, of Sabin Terrace, Stanley, who shot the 60-year-old, was found guilty of his murder along with Kelvin Lawson, 38, and 22-year-old Thomas Sterling.Reay was given a minimum term of 32 years. Lawson, of Frosterley Gardens, Stanley, who smashed the downstairs window to allow his co-accused to get a clearer shot, got a minimum term of 28 years.
Sterling, of The Avenue, Stanley, received a minimum term of 26 years. The judge said he was part of a “show of strength” in the street that day.
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said at the time of their conviction: “The shot struck Barry in the chest, puncturing his heart, lung and liver, and he was tragically pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.
“Following the shooting, Sean Reay fled the Durham area and was later arrested in Northern Ireland.”
Mr Dawson had lived in the street for more than two decades and was a well-liked member of his community.
The shocking doorbell footage caught the shooting and then Mr Dawson’s son, Shane, shouting: “They shot my dad.”
Mr Justice Cotter said: “This was an extraordinary crime in an ordinary residential street.
“It was the sort of thing most people only see in television or films, and then not in this country.”
