Killer guilty of colonel's murder

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Workman was shot dead on the doorstep of his village home in Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire
A convicted murderer has been found guilty of gunning down a retired army officer in cold blood.

Christopher Docherty-Puncheon, 33, shot Lieutenant Colonel Robert "Riley" Workman, 83, on his doorstep in Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire, in an "execution-style" killing in 2004.

Docherty-Puncheon, from nearby Stocking Pelham, denied murdering his former employer Lt Col Workman but jurors at St Albans Crown Court found him guilty following a four-week trial.

Docherty-Puncheon confessed to killing Lt Col Workman to two cellmates while he was on remand over a separate murder charge, describing himself to one of them as a "modern-day hitman" who killed people for money. He had worked as a pest controller for Lt Col Workman, known by many as "The Colonel", and the court heard the pair also had a sexual relationship.

On the evening of January 7 2004, he rang Lt Col Workman's doorbell and then retreated before shooting him with a sawn-off shotgun from between 11 and 13 feet away. The colonel was found on the doorstep of his home, Cock House, Causeway, by his part-time carer Josette Swanson the next morning.

Docherty-Puncheon is already serving a life sentence for the murder of Fred Moss, 21, in late 2004. Moss was described as being killed in an "execution-type" manner, with Docherty-Puncheon shooting him in the head, then cutting up his body and burning it in an incinerator.

Docherty-Puncheon, who was convicted of Mr Moss's murder in 2006, claimed his cellmates made the confessions up. He also told the court that claims that he had a sexual relationship with the colonel were made up and a product of village gossip, like something out of TV detective drama Midsomer Murders.

Justice John Saunders sentenced Docherty-Puncheon to life imprisonment, with a minimum jail term of 32 years before he can be considered for parole.

He said: "Colonel Workman was 83 when he was shot down. He was unarmed and in poor health. He had neither the capacity nor the opportunity to defend himself.

"It was a terrible crime and people living in that rural community were shocked by the gunning down in cold blood of one of their elderly neighbours. I cannot say for certain what the reason for the attack was. Several have been suggested during the evidence but none have been proved to my satisfaction. Maybe we will never know."

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