24/06/07 - Keep my son's killer behind bars!
Essex Evening Echo
THE mother of a police informant who was executed in a gangland killing has spoken of her relief that her son's killer has had his appeal rejected.
Ricky Percival was sentenced to 26 years for the murder of Dean Boshell at the Manchester Drive allotments site, Leigh, in 2001.
Critical to the case was the testimony of "supergrass" Damon Alvin, formerly of Rushbottom Lane, Benfleet.
Alvin had earlier been accused of the murder, but police later dropped the charges against him and he turned Queen's evidence to testify against his former accomplice.
Percival, 27, of Cricketfield Grove, Leigh, applied to the Royal Courts of Justice in an effort to quash the conviction or reduce the sentence, but was not granted leave to appeal on either ground.
Mr Boshell's mother, Beverley, 50, who lives in the Basildon area, said she was relieved it had been turned down. She hoped Percival spent the rest of his life behind bars.
Mrs Boshell sat through every day of the 11-week murder trial at the end of last year and said she was terrified the case would go to appeal.
"I have been absolutely dreading it - that it would go to appeal and everything would get raked up again," she said.
"As far as I'm concerned, I hope he spends the rest of his life in prison for what he did.
"I thought everything would get easier once the trial had finished, but it hasn't. There are still certain TV programmes I can't watch and I have a lot of trouble sleeping. I just hope it's all over now."
The trial lifted the lid on the Essex underworld, with allegations of police corruption, jury tampering and a series of brutal crimes across Southend and Basildon. Percival was found guilty of murder, attempted murder, robbery, and perverting the course of justice.
Alvin was later sentenced to five years in jail after he pleaded guilty to a series of charges including burglary, firearms charges, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and causing grievous bodily harm.
