Wife ordered ex-husband's murder

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A woman and her ex-lover have both been found guilty of murdering her former husband, using money from their divorce settlement to pay for his execution.

Yvette Luffman, of Revesby Way, Boston, Lincolnshire, and her ex-lover Wayne Briscoe, of Harewood Avenue, Bulwell, Nottingham, both 40, had denied murder.

Simon Luffman, 39, was shot on a canal towpath in Nottinghamshire in 2003.

The pair were found guilty at a trial at Birmingham Crown Court and are due to be sentenced on Wednesday.

The court heard the pair had agreed to pay doorman Thomas Convery £30,000 for the murder.

He shot Mr Luffman twice in the back and twice in the head on a disused canal towpath in Bramcote in October 2003.

Mr Luffman was murdered on a canal towpath in October 2003

Convery, 34, was convicted of the murder in 2004.

Mrs Luffman used £1,000, paid to her by her ex-husband in their divorce agreement, as a down payment for the murder, the court was told.

The £1,000 was part of a £4,000 settlement agreed by the couple following the collapse of their marriage the previous year.

Prosecutor Gregory Dickinson QC told the jury one of the "unhappy ironies" of the case was that Mr Luffman unwittingly paid towards his own murder.

Giving evidence in the latest trial, Convery said Luffman and Briscoe approached him with the idea of killing his victim when he was on duty as a bouncer at Chambers Bar in Nottingham.

Cold-blooded crime

He told the court that Mr Luffman sat in the bar having a drink when his ex-wife pointed him out through the window and asked Convery how much it would cost to have him killed.

Senior prosecutor Dona Parry-Jones said: "They (Luffman and Briscoe) approached Thomas Convery, provided him with the gun, gave him instructions, and paid for him to commit the execution.

"They share as much blame for Mr Luffman's murder as Thomas Convery, who pulled the trigger.

"The killing of Mr Luffman was a calculated, callous and cold-blooded crime," she said.