Wendy WilliamsA MOTHER has thanked the Olive Press for helping to bring her son’s killer to justice.
An emotional Candy Dawson expressed her delight after James Tomkins was found guilty of murdering her son Rocky in a unanimous verdict by Woolwich Crown Court.
Tomkins, 61, had been picked up in Puerto Banus last year, after a tip off from a reader following an appeal in 2010.
“It is what we have been waiting for,” she said. “Justice has been done at last.”
And she added: “Without your help we may never have found him…I can’t thank you enough.”
James ‘Jimbles’ Tomkins will now serve 33 years behind bars for shooting 24-year-old Rocky Dawson in May 2006.
Rocky was shot in the back ‘without warning’ as he put his children, aged two and six, in the car outside his parents’ home in Hornchurch, Essex.
The court heard how Tomkins fired the shots from a Land Rover Freelander in a ‘deliberate, calculated and cold-blooded’ drive-by shooting.
Rocky died in his mothers arms.
Meanwhile Tomkins fled the country and spent four years on the run in Spain becoming one of Britain’s Most Wanted.
When police located him – following an emotional appeal by Candy published in the Olive Press – he had a fake Irish passport in the name of Michael Lynch.
Despite the lengthy investigation, police are still unable to establish a motive for the murder, as Tomkins refused to testify.
It is believed to be a case of mistaken identity.
Prosecutor David Hislop QC said: “There remains a terrible possibility that Dawson’s killers had mistaken him for someone else.”
And Detective Inspector Mark Lawson added: “This was a brutal execution of a totally innocent young man.
“He was gunned down in front of his two children who were lucky to have escaped uninjured.
“Since his extradition and return to the UK Tomkins has shown no remorse for his callous actions.”
The getaway driver, Christopher Pearman, of Waltham Abbey, was also jailed for life in 2007 after pleading guilty to the murder.
Candy concluded: “I still have the heartache but now we have justice I can concentrate on remembering my son for his life. He will always be alive in our hearts.”
Was he really picked up as the result of an Olive Press appeal? If so, well done!! Nice to get scum like this off the streets, wherever they may be.
Yes i can confirm he was definately arrested after the appeal from the olive press.. Without their help he would still be in hiding. Now he is where he belongs.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc ?