A man blasted his daughter’s ex-partner and her ex-partner’s father to death with a shotgun over a family court case involving his grandson, a court has heard.
Stephen Alderton, 67, was arrested hours later by armed officers on a motorway and 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 Stephen Gair.
The barrister told Cambridge Crown Court that Alderton, who wore a crucifix necklace as he appeared in the secure dock, had written in a telephone message last year: “I’ve a shortlist of people I intend to murder.”
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 on March 29 this year, and his sentencing began on Friday.
The murders came two days after a family court hearing, Mr Gair said.
The pair were found dead at their homes in villages six miles apart in Cambridgeshire, with Joshua Dunmore’s home in Bluntisham and his father’s in Sutton.
Mr Gair said: “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.
“This concerned a request to move their seven-year-old child from the jurisdiction of the court by emigrating to the USA.”
He said that Mrs Stephen and Mr Dunmore’s relationship ended shortly after their son was born and in 2020 she married her current partner, Paul Stephen.
Mr Gair said that Mr Stephen, a US national, served with the US Air Force.
“He was due to be redeployed back to the USA,” said Mr Gair.
He said they “sought permission of the family court and Joshua opposed the application”.
“There was a hearing on March 27 2023 and it would appear (the child) wouldn’t be removed from the jurisdiction,” said Mr Gair.
