Mihai Dobre murder: Man jailed over Peterborough shooting

Mihai Dobre, 29, died in hospital after he was shot in the back of the head

A man who claimed he accidentally shot a drug dealer dead when the gun he was holding went off has been jailed.

Mihai Dobre, 29, died after being shot in the head in Crabtree, in the Paston area of Peterborough, on 13 April 2022.

Prosecutors said Mr Dobre was killed as he fled the scene of a drug deal.

Lewis Hutchinson, 30, was given a life sentence with a minimum jail term of 31 years in prison, after being found guilty of murder and conspiracy to rob at Peterborough Crown Court.

Sentencing him, Judge Sean Enright said he did not find any remorse from the defendant "convincing".

A trial heard Mr Dobre had driven to Crabtree with his partner to deliver class A drugs to Hutchinson and a second man, 40-year-old Christopher Pycroft.

However, as the two men approached his car, Mr Dobre feared he was about to be robbed and began to drive off, at which point he was fatally shot.

Lewis Hutchinson was found guilty after a trial at Peterborough Crown Court in February

Hutchinson claimed he and Pycroft had gone to buy drugs from Mr Dobre, and at some stage Pycroft had pulled out a shotgun and asked him to hold it.

He said he had agreed and was holding it "like a baby" about four or five metres from the car when the trigger went off.

He told the jury he was "devastated" at what had happened.

A firearms expert later told the court it was near impossible for the trigger to have gone off on its own.

Christopher Pycroft admitted conspiracy to commit robbery

After the shooting, Hutchinson made his way to a nearby travellers' site where he called his grandmother, Diane Riley, and asked to be picked up.

Riley, alongside Hutchinson's aunt, Jeanie Stewart, took him to her home in Skegness and helped him dispose of his clothing.

He was arrested the following day.

Pycroft, of Crabtree, Peterborough, previously admitted a charge of conspiracy to rob and was jailed for five years and three months at the same court on 9 May.

Riley, of Spirewic Avenue, and Stewart, of Waddington Way, both in Skegness, admitted a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and are due to be sentenced in July.

Hutchinson, of Eastern Avenue, Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, was sentenced to a minimum term of 31 years, minus 414 days already served while on remand.