Spurned stepson who hired hitman to kill stepdad to inherit £240,000 jailed for 25 years

An aggrieved son who hired a hitman to murder his stepdad so he would inherit a £240,000 ($305,000) home in Essex has been jailed for 25 years.

Described as a "horrific act born out of sheer greed" Flash Day hatched an evil plan to kill his 71-year-old stepdad, John Sales, after his mother left a house in Colchester to her second husband.

Day, who changed his name from Ashley Day by deed poll, was named in the will drawn up by Sales, but Day was still resentful at not being the sole inheritor, of his childhood home.

So the unemployed 46-year ordered Ryan Hynes, 22, to kill the pensioner after the house was placed on the market in September 2015.

The pair were jailed for conspiring to murder following a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday (23 June) after being found guilty at the court last month.

Day had denied conspiracy to commit murder while Hynes, a warehouse man, admitted charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder at a hearing in October last year.

Day was jailed for 25 years and Hynes was jailed for 17 years and three months.

Hynes began the attack by pretending, on 10 November 2015, that he had lost his son's football in Sales' back garden.

When Sales come back with a torch he was stabbed 11 times to the face, head, neck, chest, shoulder and back but still managed to dial 999.

Officers arrived within minutes to find him critically injured on his doorstep and Sales still requires continuing medical treatment.

Sales' daughter, Tanya Ryan, said: "We are pleased with the verdict and grateful to the jury for making their unanimous decision so quickly.

"We would like to thank the surgeons at Colchester and Addenbrooke's Hospital for saving my dad's life, and the Stanway major crime team for the manner in which they treated our dad and the way they conducted the investigation.

"We also thank the media for the way they have covered the attack and respected our wishes for my dad's privacy to be respected.

"This attack devastated us all but we are a strong and close family and we will now be able to put this behind us and move on with our lives."

Linked to the case, a 17-year-old girl from Colchester, who had given Hynes an alibi and cannot be named for legal reasons due to her age, admitted perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to a 12-month rehabilitation order and three month curfew.

Senior Investigating Officer Detective Inspector Al Pitcher, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "Day is a callous and selfish individual who orchestrated this vicious attack against a member of his own family.

"He was motivated by money and neither he nor Hynes had any regard for the victim."