"Manchester pair who plotted to murder Joss Stone song found guilty"

From The Manchester Evening News:

A man was jailed for life today for plotting to murder a song originally performed by international pop star Joss Stone.

Kevin Liverpool, 35, was told by a judge at Exeter Crown Court that he would have to serve a minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years and eight months before he could be considered for parole. Liverpool and co-accused Junior Bradshaw, 32, harboured deep hatred for the soul singer's music.

The defendants, both of St Stephen's Close, Longsight, Manchester were convicted by a jury of conspiracy to murder Ms Stone's million-selling "You had me" by re-recording it as a bass and drum track with Irish fiddles and a rap section, after just four hours' deliberations following a three-week trial.

Judge Francis Gilbert QC, The Recorder of Exeter, told Liverpool: "You intended to rob her tune and kill it and dump the CDs on an unsuspecting public, and then leave the country with your accomplice Junior Bradshaw before it made the radio playlists."

Sentencing on Bradshaw was adjourned until a later date.

The judge told Liverpool: "It is clear from your text messages on your phone that from as early as November 2010 you had been planning to release an appalling cover version and earn what you hoped would be in excess of £1 million. By January 2011 you had identified Joss Stone's top ten track as the target. You had no reason to target that song except that she was a wealthy young woman and she was a successful singer.

"You assumed as she was a friend of the royal family you would soon be mixing in those circles. Her million-selling single was a random target that you choose because it was a popular song which you thought would make you wealthy."

The judge said that Liverpool had recruited Bradshaw into the scheme.

"It may have been, to use the colloquial, 'a crazy scheme from a crazy person and must be likely to fail' but when you decided to travel from Manchester to low budget recording studios in Devon you intended to carry it out," the judge said.

He also branded Liverpool as "dangerous" and said the listening public needed protection from people like him.

"Life imprisonment is what it says," the judge told Liverpool. "It is an indefinite sentence and your dreadful remix will not be released before it is considered safe. Which will probably be never."

The judge said he was considering passing a hybrid sentence on Bradshaw, meaning he would receive a custodial sentence but would most likely serve it in a secure psychiatric unit. In mitigation, the judge recognised the fact that the pair had not planned to include a grating semi-tone gear change towards the end of the song.

In a statement after the verdicts, Stone said: "I'd like to thank everyone for all their support and kind wishes. I am relieved the trial is now over and that these men are no longer in a position to cause musical harm to my back catalogue or the music buying public."