Jonathan Clarke

A Telford man who was the instigator behind a “perfect murder” plot to kill a teenager by dousing him in fuel and setting him on fire could not stop boasting about the killing, a court has heard.

Jonathan Clarke, from Malinslee, was starting a life sentence this afternoon after a judge told the 20-year-old he would serve at least 27 years in jail.

Clarke was the main man behind the murder which saw him and his friends, Jimi-Lee Stewart and Maria Chandler, kidnap Simon Everitt putting him in the boot of the car and taking him to some woods in Norfolk.

Sentencing all three to life at Norwich Crown Court, Mr Justice David Calvert-Smith said Clarke was the instigator of the plot and was “sadistic”.

But he said the trio’s attempts to commit a “perfect murder” had unravelled partly because Clarke could not stop boasting about what he had done.

Mr Everitt’s father was having an “horrendous time” dealing with the murder of his son, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement, read out by Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, Vince Everitt said he had struggled to come to terms with the “horror of what happened”.

“I have had an horrendous time dealing with the death of my son,” said Mr Everitt, a professional entertainer. “I was in a state of disbelief and kept expecting my son to walk through the door.”

Simon Everitt

Clarke led the murder plan by getting Chandler to drive them to Mr Everitt where they forced him into her vehicle.

The three then stopped at a petrol station to fill up a fuel can, while Mr Everitt was trapped in the boot. The fuel was then poured over Mr Everitt after Clarke and Stewart tied him to a tree in woods at Mautby.

After torturing a man who had once been their friend, Clarke lit a match and threw it at the terrified teenager, leaving him to burn to death.

The three then covered Mr Everitt’s body with soil.

By Crime Correspondent Kirsty Smallman