A FALKLANDS veteran has been convicted of executing Lancashire accountant David Wilson.

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court late on Tuesday took almost four and a half hours to find Stephen Playle guilty of murdering the 47-year-old father of two.

Playle, whose thumbprints were found on the nine feet of tape that bound Mr Wilson's hands behind his back had admitted falsely imprisoning Mr Wilson's eldest daughter, Michelle Wilson.

Playle, 35, of The Firs, Longlands Road, Sidcup, Kent, who denied murder, told the court he had been one of the two gunmen at the house, but was not present when Mr Wilson was shot and did not know he was going to be shot.

He claimed he had been asked to accompany a stranger, whom he said was not his co-accused Michael Crossley, to Mr Wilson's house to provide "muscle" should a businessman prove uncooperative in handing over some documents.

Mr Wilson's daughters, Michelle and Lisa Marie, were in tears after the unanimous verdict was returned by the foreman of the seven man, five woman-strong jury.

The jury were due to return on Wednesday to deliberate the case of Crossley.

Crossley, 34, of the Six Bells public house, Old Perry Street, Northfleet, Kent, denies both the murder and the false imprisonment charges.

During the trial it was alleged that Oldham-born Stephen Schepke hired lifelong friends Crossley and Playle to execute Mr Wilson for American Michael Austin.

Austin, who was at the centre of a multi-million pound cigarette fraud, had Mr Wilson executed after he spoke to the fraud squad when arrested a few weeks earlier, claimed Mr Henry Globe QC, prosecuting.

Austin made the arrangements for the killing from America via 49-year-old Schepke, a regular at the Black Horse public house in Sidcup frequented by Crossley and where Playle was chef, he alleged.

The court has heard that 41-year-old Austin was convicted of Mr Wilson's murder and Schepke convicted of aiding and abetting Austin.

Two masked gunmen, armed with handguns with silencers, went to Mr Wilson's luxury secluded home, Withnell Villa, Withnell, near Chorley, on the night of March 5, 1992, and kept Michelle prisoner for two hours until her father and the family returned home.

Mr Wilson, who was shot in the back of the head twice, was later found lying face down in a pool of blood in the garage.

Crossley, a publican and former Coroporal in the armed forces, has told the court that he had nothing whatsoever to do with the murder and has disputed that he and Playle were as close as has been suggested.

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