Father and son killers who left the body of a Keighley car dealer in a quiet country lane will together serve at least 33 years behind bars for the murder, the High Court has ruled.
David Harold Edmond Deakin, then 25, of Batley, and his father David Deakin, then 52, of Liversedge, were convicted of the murder of Mark Hickman after a trial in February 1999. They were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Today, after a review of the case at the High Court, a top judge ruled that the son must serve at least 15 years and the father at least 18 years behind bars for the murder.
Mr Justice Owen's ruling means the pair must serve those terms before being allowed to apply for release and even then they will only be freed if they are deemed safe by the parole board.
Mr Hickman's brutal murder arose out of a running feud with another man in the local motor trade in the late 1990s.
In February 1998, Mr Hickman - who lived at Whin Knoll Avenue, Keighley - employed Deakin Snr to mediate in the dispute. But Deakin Snr switched allegiances and turned against him.
On February 13, 1998, Mr Hickman was lured to a narrow country lane at Shelf. When he arrived, he was beaten about the head with a blunt instrument and stabbed several times. His body was left lying in the road.
His car was driven away and torched, together with a Peugeot that Deakin Snr had acquired for the crime.
Both Deakins denied involvement and constructed elaborate defences, which were disbelieved by the trial jury.
Lawyers representing Deakin Jnr argued that a three-year difference between his tariff and that imposed on his father, said to be the organiser of the murder, was too little.
His father's representatives argued his progress in prison warranted a minimum term of less than 18 years.
But the judge said the seriousness of the murder meant tariffs of 15 years and 18 years were fully justified.
"As the trial judge observed in passing sentence, this was a planned, organised and determinedly executed murder - in the words of the Lord Chief Justice, an execution," he said.
On release both men will spend the rest of their lives on licence, subject to return to prison if they put a foot wrong.
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