Footballer Grant jailed for life

Footballer Gavin Grant has been jailed for life for shooting a former friend and told he would have to serve at least 25 years.

The 26-year-old former Millwall striker thought he had got away with murder after Leon Labastide, 21, was gunned down outside his parents' home in 2004.

Grant was cleared in August 2007 of the shooting murder of Jahmall Moore. But justice caught up with him when he was charged with Mr Labastide's murder after new witnesses came forward.

Gareth Downie, 25, and Damian Williams, 32, were also jailed for life and given minimum terms of 25 years - Downie for murdering Mr Labastide and Williams for conspiracy to murder.

As Grant was being sentenced at the Old Bailey, a woman shouted from the public gallery: "It's all fixed" and "You are coming out". Uproar broke out in the public gallery as the men were led to the cells. Williams lifted a fist defiantly and told his supporters: "Fight".

The Recorder of London, Judge Peter Beaumont, said Mr Labastide's murder had been in revenge for a series of 'tit-for-tat' shootings. He said: "He was executed by shooting."

Grant, from Kenton, north London, Williams, of Southwark, south London, and Downie, of Markby Road, Birmingham, looked angry as they were sentenced. A charge that Grant had committed perjury at his trial for murdering Mr Moore, 22, was allowed to lie on file.

Roberto Parchment, 24, originally convicted of Mr Moore's murder, was found guilty again following a retrial in December brought about by supergrass Darren Mathurin's involvement.

Grant has also played for Gillingham and Wycombe Wanderers and was with Bradford City last season. Nigel Rumfitt QC, for Grant, said: "Whatever he did in the past, he had turned his life around by the time it was resurrected."

Detective Inspector Steve Horsley said: "Gavin Grant thought he had got away with murder. He carried on his footballing career while, all along, he had blood on his hands."