Man jailed for 1993 Reading murder after retrial

A man who killed a cannabis dealer in an execution-style murder has been jailed for a minimum of 27 years.

Andrew Everson, 54, of Weymouth, Dorset, has been given a life sentence for shooting David Watkins dead in Pingewood, near Reading, in 1993.

Everson was previously cleared of killing the 30-year-old father-of-two in 1994 but was found guilty on Wednesday after a retrial.

He was retried after fresh evidence emerged during a case review.

Mr Watkins left his home on 14 January 1993 with £6,000 in cash to buy drugs from a man known as Drew, police said.

Officers said Everson had deliberately lured him to a remote spot in Searles Farm Lane, under the pretence of conducting a drug deal.

Peter Beirne, of Thames Valley Police, said Mr Watkins "was forced to kneel down and was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun".

Prosecutor John Price QC told jurors new evidence suggested Mr Watkins "must have been" in the defendant's car hours before his death, something Everson had denied when questioned in 1993.

Reading Crown Court heard Everson also admitted buying a shotgun in 1992, another fact he had denied during the first trial.

Mr Beirne, head of the force's major crime review team, said the motive for the shooting remained unclear but Everson had been in debt at the time.

Mr Watkins' partner Sue Wardle and her two sons looked directly at Everson as he was sentenced.

As Everson was taken down to the cells, he shouted: "I didn't kill him."

Mr Justice Nicol said: "There is only one sentence for murder. It is life imprisonment."

The judge added the defendant would serve a minimum term of 27 years, minus 895 days he had spent on remand and on a curfew.