A man has been found guilty of murdering Lee Holt and warned he is facing a life sentence behind bars.

Matthew Moseley, 50, had told the jury that his son had Thomas gunned down the dad-of-two on his doorstep as he reached to take his semi-automatic Beretta shotgun from the 14-year-old.

However the jury, made up of eight women and four men, took just two hours and 19 minutes to dismiss his account and find him guilty of murder.

Moseley, of Barnard Close, Oswaldtwistle, stood motionless in the dock as the verdict was announced.

Mr Justice Ryan remanded him for custody for sentence at Preston Crown Court on Tuesday, May 8.

He told the court: “There’s only one sentence I can pass which is a life sentence.”

After the hearing, Detective Chief Inspector Jill Johnston from Lancashire’s Force Major Investigation Team (FMIT): “Matthew Moseley has shown no remorse for his actions and instead allowed his own son, a 14 year old boy, to go through the ordeal of being arrested and questioned by the police, for something which all along he knew he had done.

“If that wasn’t wicked enough, he then also pressurised the boy to take responsibility for a crime that he hadn’t committed and told the court during the trial that he was innocent and that the boy had fired the fatal shot.

“Moseley was a licensed firearm holder and should have known how dangerous these kinds of weapons are. Instead, in the heat of an altercation he used one of them to take a man’s life needlessly, all over a fall out between two schoolboys.

Police at the scene

“The impact of what all of the people witnessed on that night cannot be underestimated with each and every one of their lives having been hugely affected.

“I would like to thank the jury for their careful consideration and hope that today’s result provides some comfort to Lee Holt’s family.”