06/02/07 - Sorry...I was there when your son was shot
Essex Evening Echo
A witness has written an emotional letter to a murder victim's mother, apologising for not coming forward to help police sooner.
In the letter, Damon Alvin, who lied for three-and-a-half years to cover up Dean Boshell's murder, tells the victim's mum, Beverley, from Basildon, he was "as much to blame as the person who pulled the trigger".
During the murder trial Alvin, 33, formerly of Rushbottom Lane, Benfleet, said he watched as Ricky Percival shot Mr Boshell in a ruthless gangland execution.
Percival, 27, of Cricketfield Grove, Leigh, was sentenced in December to 26 years in prison for the murder and several other offences, including three attempted murders.
He has lodged an appeal with the Royal Courts of Justice in London against the murder conviction.
In a neatly handwritten letter addressed to Mr and Mrs Boshell, Alvin apologises for lying for so long and says he has turned his back on a life of crime.
The letter reads: "I am truly sorry for everything that's happened and for what I've put you and your families through.
"I don't seek forgiveness as I don't believe I could give it if I was in your situation. I just wanted to apologise from the bottom of my heart and tell you how sorry I am for your loss.
"Only now do I truly realise how my actions and criminal ways devastated people's lives and hurt the people who least deserved it - the innocent."
Last month, Alvin was sentenced to five years in prison for robbery and perverting the course of justice after admitting a string of offences to police, including lying about his involvement in the murder.
Mrs Boshell, 49, sat in court for every day of Percival's trial.
She said she had, so far, not had the courage to read the letter, but police had told her of its contents.
Mrs Boshell told the Echo: "The police have said I can reply if I want, but I don't know if I will.
"I can never forgive Alvin for what he did. He can't call himself a friend because he kept quiet for so long.
"A real friend wouldn't have done that."
The three-page letter to Mrs Boshell outlines Alvin's friendship with her son, as well as their involvement in different crimes.
The letter also says that Alvin, Percival and Mr Boshell had planned to rob a cannabis farm on the night of the murder, a plot "in which no one needed to get hurt".
Alvin, who was originally charged with the murder, but formally cleared after agreeing to testify against Percival, said he had no idea Mr Boshell would meet his death that night.
He wrote: "That night changed many people's lives and continues to do so."
