The man who shot Craig Hodson-Walker was a convicted robber who lied repeatedly to escape justice for the killing.

Anselm Ribera, who owes his surname to a Spanish-Irish mother, had claimed he had been out jogging when Mr Hodson-Walker, 29, was shot through the heart as he tried to fend off a masked gang at the post office.

But he was brought to justice by a combination of CCTV footage and mobile phone evidence that proved his version of events was a lie.

Ribera had already served time in prison for robbing another post office seven years ago. During the raid, a concrete block was hurled through a glass security screen at a post office branch in Redditch Road, Kings Norton, Birmingham, before Ribera and another man escaped with about £4,300 in cash.

The father-of-one, whose blood was found at the scene, admitted his role in the earlier offence and was jailed for six years, but released from prison on licence in October 2005.

At the time of the Fairfield murder, Ribera had lost his job as a drain clearance worker because he had been given a driving ban.