QUICKLY after Bradley Blundell arrived back in the UK, Ella Colgate, 19, of Aldridge Close, Chelmsford, was arrested for perverting the course of justice.

She had accepted instructions from Blundell to lie to the court, claiming she could not remember what happened the morning of August 5, 2017.

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Photo: Essex PolicePhoto: Essex Police

Colgate asked her friend, Florence Lawes, who was in the car at the time to do the same, which she refused. During the police investigation in the days after John Pordage was murdered, officers carried out a stop check on the blue Ford Fiesta Colgate was driving the night of the shooting.

The vehicle was registered to her father, who was driving it at the time police carried out the stop and search.

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Photo: Essex PolicePhoto: Essex Police

In the first trial that saw a 16-year-old boy cleared of murder, Colgate had given evidence that supported the teenager, stating he handled the cosh used to hit Mr Pordage.

Prosecution barrister Allan Compton said: “During the first trial when she gave evidence, Colgate didn’t have any difficulty in saying things that were helpful for that juvenile.

“But in order to do so, those answers had to be unhelpful for Bradley Blundell.

“That was fine in the first trial, because he wasn’t there in the dock.

“Those words came back to haunt her, because I had that transcript.

“She realised she had gone down the wrong path.”

At Chelmsford Crown Court, on the same day as Blundell, Colgate received 12 months in prison for perverting the course of justice.