Detective recalls 'horrific' double shooting case

A detective who investigated the murders of a father and son shot dead in their homes in separate incidents on the same night has said it was a "particularly horrific" case.

Stephen Alderton, who was 67 at the time, had a shortlist of people he wanted to kill, with the list including Gary and Josh Dunmore.

They were killed in Cambridgeshire in March 2023.

Det Ch Insp Katie Dounias said: "Sadly, you do get to a point in policing where nothing really surprises you [but] this was particularly horrific and it was unusual, and these were really loving families – you wouldn't expect this to happen."

The case has featured this week in A Family Vendetta, an episode of 24 Hours In Police Custody that aired on Monday and Tuesday on Channel 4.

Josh, 32, who was a former partner of Alderton's daughter, was shot twice in the hall of his home in Bluntisham, near Huntingdon, on the evening of 29 March 2023.

Police said that 31 minutes later, Alderton shot Gary, 57, three times at his home in Sutton, near Ely.

The Channel 4 documentary followed the case from the time the first emergency call was received, and included the arrest of Alderton by armed officers on the M5 near Worcester the following day.

Alderton pleaded guilty to both murders.

Prosecutor Peter Gair told Cambridge Crown Court that Alderton had a shotgun licence and lawfully held a Beretta, which was used in both killings.

Mr Gair also said "it's clear that the events were triggered by an ongoing family court case" involving Alderton's grandson.

The court heard a victim impact statement from Gary's mother, in which she said: "Both were killed in the most vicious, cowardly way with no opportunity for self-defence."

In a letter to the court, Alderton wrote he was "not the person that this conflict and the family courts have driven me to become".

He added: "If I could turn back time, I would."

He was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 25 years.

Speaking to Louise Hulland on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Det Ch Insp Dounias, of Cambridgeshire Police, said: "This was horrific for everybody involved and the people living in that area would not have expected something like this to happen, so I'm sure it shook the communities tremendously.

"These types of crimes are not common. Gun crime in Cambridgeshire is very low and it is reducing.

"It it is not something that people should generally fear."

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