October 2, 2019 4.51 pm This story is over 53 months old

Drug dealer convicted of debt-fuelled savage Gainsborough murder

He will be sentenced at a later date
Jordan O'Brien, 25, died after an incident on Scampton Way in Gainsborough. Photo: Facebook

A drug dealer was convicted by a jury on Wednesday of the brutal murder of a Gainsborough man over a £2,000 debt.

Kieran Walker used a machete to attack Jordan O’Brien with such savagery that he almost completely hacked off his victim’s left leg. He damaged the other leg so badly that it had to be amputated just above the knee.

Jordan, 25, never recovered and died later in hospital.

The attack was the culmination of attempts by Walker to enforce a drug debt. A stash of £2,000 worth of amphetamine which had been left with Jordan for safekeeping disappeared. As a result Walker pursued him for the debt.

Walker claimed to the jury that he was only the driver of the car which transported the killer to the scene of the fatal attack in Scampton Way, Gainsborough on March 27.

He told the jury that he was not prepared to name the killer for fear of reprisals but at one point in his evidence confessed to carrying out the attack himself.

The jury at Lincoln Crown Court deliberated for almost five hours before returning a guilty verdict.

Walker, 23, of Larch Avenue, Auckley, Doncaster, was remanded in custody to await sentence on a later date.

Judge John Pini QC told Walker: “I am going to fix a date for sentence of this case probably in early November.

“The law mandates a life sentence. I have to set a minimum term you must serve. I will hear submissions as to what that might me. Parliament has mandated the starting point of 25 years and it goes up or down from there.”

Walker was previously accused of confessing to the killing during his evidence from the witness box. A prosecution barrister told the jury that Walker told over 40 lies during police interviews following his arrest.

It later emerged that his alleged confession from the witness box was a mistake.

Pathologist Dr Michael Biggs gave evidence a the start of the second week of the trial. He told the jury that Jordan died of multiple-organ failure.