This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-20151531
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Colonel Riley Workman murder: Former gamekeeper guilty | Colonel Riley Workman murder: Former gamekeeper guilty |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A former gamekeeper has been found guilty of the murder of a retired colonel in Hertfordshire. | A former gamekeeper has been found guilty of the murder of a retired colonel in Hertfordshire. |
| Christopher Docherty-Puncheon denied shooting Lt Col Robert "Riley" Workman at his Furneux Pelham home in 2004 but was convicted by a majority verdict. | Christopher Docherty-Puncheon denied shooting Lt Col Robert "Riley" Workman at his Furneux Pelham home in 2004 but was convicted by a majority verdict. |
| The five-week trial at St Albans Crown Court heard the 33-year-old confessed to the killing to cell mates while on remand for another offence. | The five-week trial at St Albans Crown Court heard the 33-year-old confessed to the killing to cell mates while on remand for another offence. |
| Prosecutors said he had also claimed to have had an affair with Lt Col Workman. | Prosecutors said he had also claimed to have had an affair with Lt Col Workman. |
| During the trial, jurors heard Lt Col Workman had died from a single blast to his body from a sawn-off shotgun which has never been found. | |
| Docherty-Puncheon, from Stocking Pelham, who was 24 at the time and known as Christopher Nudds, is alleged to have admitted murdering Lt Col Workman to cell mates while being held on remand in connection with the disappearance of Fred Moss. | |
| 'Midsomer Murders' | |
| He was later convicted and jailed for life for the killing of Mr Moss, but denied confessing to Col Workman's murder. | |
| At the start of the trial, when Docherty-Puncheon pleaded not guilty to murdering the colonel, the jury of six men and six women were told by prosecutor Richard Latham QC that the case was a "whodunnit". | |
| Docherty-Puncheon himself, while giving evidence, told how the weeks and months that followed the killing were like something out of the TV drama Midsomer Murders. | |
| Lt Col Workman, who was a widower, was shot dead on the night of 7 January 2004 after answering the door of his cottage. | |
| He was found by his carer the following morning. | |
| Within hours of the murder, detectives were questioning Docherty-Puncheon, who at the time was a pest controller and rat catcher earning £4,000 a month and living with his mother and stepfather in the village of Stocking Pelham, a mile-and-a-half from Furneux Pelham. | |
| He had previously carried out work at the colonel's home to clear a wasps' nest, but denied any involvement in the shooting. | |
| With no evidence, police released him without charge. |