Gangster gets life for raid killing

Lynton Fletcher, 27, bowed and shook his head at Birmingham Crown Court as he was convicted of killing Joseph Nwabuko during a raid on a building society in February 2004.

Fletcher, of Little Francis Grove, Nechells, Birmingham, was convicted on Wednesday of conspiracy to rob in relation to a string of armed raids in which seven other people were shot.

The killer was convicted of murder by a 10-2 majority verdict following a six-week trial which heard how Mr Nwabuko was blasted in the lungs at close range outside the Nationwide Building Society in High Street, Birmingham.

The trial was told that the 28-year-old victim, originally from Walsall, was killed after Fletcher returned from a getaway vehicle to open fire on a walkway near New Street station.

Passing sentence on Fletcher, Mr Justice Ouseley said: "This was a cold and brutal killing of a witness in the furtherance of an armed robbery."

Fletcher, who used vehicle-tracking devices to target cash delivery vans, will be sentenced on the conspiracy charge and told the minimum period he must serve in jail at a hearing in December.

Mr Justice Ouseley also praised the bravery of two members of the public who attempted to tackle members of Fletcher's gang during a string of at least 19 offences across the Midlands in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Describing Fletcher as a "prominent" part of the gang, the judge added that the police should be praised for the way in which they had carried through a "technical and difficult" case.

"I wish to express the sympathy of the court for the family of Joseph Nwabuko and also for those whose lives have been so severely disrupted by the activities of the gang of armed robbers," the judge said.