A widower who was arrested on the M5 near Worcester after shooting dead two men has been sentenced to life in prison.

Stephen Alderton will serve a minimum term of 25 years after murdering a father and son over a family court case involving his grandson.

Alderton, 67, shot the two men with his Beretta shotgun on March 29 this year, two days after a family court hearing.

Worcester News: VICTIMS: Gary (left) and Joshua DunmoreVICTIMS: Gary (left) and Joshua Dunmore (Image: Cambridgeshire Police)

The defendant, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to the murders of Joshua Dunmore, 32, and his 57-year-old father Gary Dunmore.

Judge Mark Bishop described the murders as an “execution” and told the defendant, who wore a silver crucifix necklace in court: “You took the decision to take the law into your own hands and end the lives of two innocent men.”

As he was led to the cells a family member of the two dead men, who was in court, swore and shouted “rot in prison”, which was followed by brief applause.

Joshua and Gary Dunmore were found dead at their homes in villages six miles apart in Cambridgeshire, with Joshua’s home in Bluntisham and his father’s in Sutton.

Alderton was stopped by armed police from the West Mercia force on the M5 near Worcester at about 1.30am on March 30.

He later told police that “sometimes you have to do what you have to do even if it’s wrong in the eyes of the law”, said prosecutor Peter Gair.

“We say it’s clear that the events were triggered by an ongoing family court case between this defendant’s daughter Samantha Stephen, nee Alderton, and her former partner Joshua Dunmore.

Worcester News: WEAPON: The gun used by Alderton in two murdersWEAPON: The gun used by Alderton in two murders (Image: Cambridgeshire Police)

“This concerned a request to move their seven-year-old child from the jurisdiction of the court by emigrating to the USA.”

Adrian Langdale KC, mitigating, said Alderton’s wife died in December 2019.

Mr Langdale said the defendant wrote in a letter: “I’m not the person that this conflict and the family courts have driven me to become.

“I’ve never been a violent person, I do not have a criminal record. I’ve been a respectable, law-abiding citizen all my life.

“What happened to me on March 29 I do not know.”