Paul Groves was put behind bars for a minimum of 23 years today for battering self styled Essex gangster William (Billy Boy) Martin to death after a row over drugs.
Groves, who was convicted yesterday at Chelmsford Crown Court of bludgeoning Mr Martin to death with a pick-axe handle at a remote farm at Ongar last September was given a life sentence by High Court judge, Mr Justice Sweeney.
And the judge ruled that he must serve at least 23 years before he is even eligible to apply for parole. That does not mean he will automatically be freed then though. It will be up to the Parole Board to decide whether or not his application to be released should be granted.
As he sentenced Groves, who was accompanied at the farm by another man whose identity was never revealed, the judge told him : "You have been convicted of the brutal murder of William Martindale.
"You used severe force causing terrible injuries to Mr Martindale's head. At the time he was unconscious.
"You took a muscled assistant and never revealed that man's identity although you knew it."
Groves, 34, of Queensway, Ongar, wearing a grey fleece and open necked shirt, stood in the dock flanked by a security officer and showed no emotion as the sentence was imposed.
Before the judge passed sentence Graham Trembath QC for Groves told the judge : "Essentially Mr Martindale was a co-author of this scenario that played out that evening.
"It was Mr Martindale, by virtue of incessant telecommunication, texts and phone calls, who goaded Groves to go to the farm that evening."
Groves was convicted by the eight man and four woman jury at the end of a trial which lasted just over a week of both the murder of Mr Martindale and of causing grievous bodily harm to another man, Paul Meeking, who he also attacked with the pick-axe handle.
In addition to the life sentence the judge handed down a concurrent sentence of ten years in respect of the attack on Mr Meeking.
During the trial the jury was told in bloody detail of the fatal confrontation between Groves and Mr Martindale at Mr Martindale's smallholding, Meadow View Farm, Mill Lane, High Ongar, on 7 September last year.
Mr Martindale was left with a fractured skull, bleeding under the skull, damaged nerve endings in his brain, fractured cheekbone and eye sockets.
The two men who were said at one stage to have been friends had fallen out over a drug dispute it was claimed.
Groves claimed in court that he thought Mr Martindale, who he said bragged that he was a "gangster and criminal" and had killed two hitmen, was armed with a shotgun or machete and was going to shoot him. He claimed he acted in self defence.
He told the jury he panicked and struck Mr Martindale with the pick-axe handle and then left, believing Mr Martindale was unconscious.
Groves claimed Mr Martindale had been threatening him telling him he had to grow cannabis crop for him (Martindale) because he had ruined one before and it had left him (Martindale) £2,500 out of pocket.
Groves said he had repeatedly refused to do it but eventually he decided to go to the farm to talk about it.
He told the jury he had gone to see Mr Martindale after he phoned him threatening to stab his (Groves') father.
Although told the jury he believed Mr Martindale was a "bully, gangster and a criminal", he said he went to see him to "tell him to calm down" to "chill out."
But he claimed that when he got there Mr Martindale was at a table with and he had thought it was a gun or a machete.
He told the jury : "I panicked and thought it was a shotgun. He had shown me a shotgun in the past and was always bragging about guns and things and quite passionate about them and it just looked like the butt of a shotgun.
"I panicked and punched him. I thought he was going to shoot me."
He claimed he was then attacked by Mr Meeking with a pick-axe handle, wrested it from Mr Meeking and hit him with it. He said he had then hit Mr Martindale twice and had left thinking that he was unconscious.
