A PETTY criminal who joined his flatmate's £1m plot to rob and murder soul singer Joss Stone has been jailed for 18 years.
Junior Bradshaw acted as a foot soldier and driver for Kevin Liverpool, who devised the plan to kidnap and kill the star at her isolated Devon home.
He was a psychiatric patient who stopped taking his medication after being released into the community and who fell under Liverpool's spell after moving into his flat in Manchester.
He drove much of the journey to Devon and was arrested alongside a chilling arsenal of weapons including a Samurai sword, two hammers, knives, balaclavas and a body bag. Liverpool developed a hatred of the singer because he believed she was a friend of the royal family, who he despised.
They picked her as the target because of her success and wealth and they believed she kept £1m at her home.
The two men came within seven miles of success but got lost as they searched for their house and were arrested in nearby Cullompton when a quick-thinking local police woman searched their car and found the murder kit.
The plot failed because of a bizarre series of bungles which saw them leave without enough money to buy petrol for the trip, crash their car as they fled a motorway filling station, and arouse suspicion by asking a postman how to find Joss Stone's home. If they had reached the converted farmhouse in a quiet hamlet in East Devon, they would have found her alone and unguarded with the door unlocked and only her pet Rottweiler for protection.
Bradshaw was jailed after a judge told him that despite having an IQ of just 65 he understood what Liverpool was planning and was willing to join him in the murder plot.
Bradshaw, 32, of St Stephen's Close, Manchester, denied conspiracy to murder and rob Joss Stone at her home in Ashill, near Hemyock, in June 2010.
Both he and 35-year-old Liverpool were found guilty at a trial at Exeter Crown Court in April at which Liverpool was jailed for life with a minimum term of 10 years and eight months.
Bradshaw's sentence was delayed for psychiatric reports, but he was sent to jail rather than a mental hospital because none of the doctors who examined him was willing to offer him a bed.
Judge Francis Gilbert QC jailed him for 18 years after ruling that he should not be classified as dangerous, although he said it was "a close run thing".
Mr Martin Meeke QC defending, said the reports confirmed that Bradshaw was vulnerable by virtue of his low intelligence which made him susceptible to being manipulated by Liverpool.
