Killer grandfather who shot dead his daughter’s ex-boyfriend and his father amid bitter child custody battle involving his grandson told police arresting him: ‘Sometimes you have to do what you have to do’

A killer grandfather who shot dead his daughter’s ex-boyfriend and his father amid a bitter child custody battle told police arresting him, ‘sometimes you have to do what you have to do’.

Widower Stephen Alderton, 67, had previously sent out text messages claiming he would ‘override any court decision’ and that there was always a ‘plan B’ if his daughter’s custody request failed.

Samantha Stephen was told by court that she could not take her seven-year-old son, that she shared with her former partner Joshua Dunmore, 32, to America with her US Airforce husband Paul Stephen, who was from Ohio but based at RAF Mildenhall.

Just two days after the custody decision, Mr Dunmore and his father Gary Dunmore, 57, were gunned down in separate attacks in two villages six miles in Cambridgeshire.

Both men were shot dead by Alderton as they opened their front doors. Their murders were described as ‘executions’ yesterday as Alderton was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 25 years.

Samantha Stephen was told by court that she could not take her seven-year-old son, that she shared with her former partner Joshua Dunmore, 32, to America. Two days later her father shot dead Mr Dunmore and his father 

Stephen Alderton, 67,  was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 25 years for the murder of the father and son

Gary Dunmore, 57, (left) and Joshua Dunmore, 32, (right), were shot dead six miles apart from each other by Alderton on March 29 this year 

Relatives of the Dunmore’s wept, swore and applauded, shouting ‘rot in jail’, as the killer was led from Cambridgeshire Crown Court to his cell yesterday.

Judge Mark Bishop told the defendant, who wore a prominent silver crucifix: ‘You took the decision to take the law into your own hands and end the lives of two innocent men.’

He added that the grandfather blasted the Berretta shotgun on March 29 this year over his ‘distorted beliefs’ over family court proceedings involving his grandson in what ‘was an interim and not final hearing on March 27’.

Peter Gair prosecuting said: ‘We say it’s clear that the events were triggered by an ongoing family court case between this defendant’s daughter Samantha Stephen, nee Alderton, and her former partner Joshua Dunmore.

‘This concerned a request to move their seven-year-old child from the jurisdiction of the court by emigrating to the USA.’

Mr Stephen, a US national who married Mrs Stephen in 2020, had been due to go back to his country, hoping to bring his wife and his child – but the younger Mr Dunmore had opposed the custody application.

The hearing on March 27 said the child would not be removed from the jurisdiction.

This is the moment Stephen Alderton, 67,  was caught by armed police after he ‘executed’ Joshua Dunmore, 32, and his father Gary, 57, at their Cambridgeshire homes in March

Former quantity surveyor Alderton went on a ruthless killing spree on March 29, repeatedly blasting the Dunmore’s with his Beretta shotgun

Police revealed a bag full of shotgun cartridges that Alderton had had in his possession 

Forensics enter an address inside a police cordon at The Row, in Sutton, Cambridgeshire on March 30 2023 following a double shooting in the county 

Joshua Dunmore and Mrs Stephens split up shortly before the birth of their son. The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, now remains in care, a court heard previously.

Alderton had sold his house and moved into a motorhome after his wife’s death in 2019. At a previous hearing, his barrister, Adrian Langdale KC, said he had transferred much of his love to his grandson after his wife’s death.

On March 29, he drove his white Peugeot motorhome to Joshua Dunmore’s home in Bluntisham, Cambridgeshire, and shot him in the chest and head with a legally owned shotgun.

Alderton – who admitted both murder charges – then drove six miles to Gary Dunmore’s home in Sutton, Cambridgeshire, shooting him three times.

He was arrested a few hours later in his motorhome on the M5 near Worcester.

Dramatic footage showed the moment that police pulled over his campervan on the motorway, with pistols pointed at the former quantity surveyor as officers screamed ‘put your hands where we can see them’ as the pensioner emerged from his van.

Alderton then walks towards police with his arms in the air before being bundled to the ground and handcuffed.

Detective Chief Inspector Katie Dounias, of Cambridgeshire Police, said after the hearing: ‘Alderton turned a family dispute playing itself out through the courts into a double tragedy by his rash and brutal actions.’

A man and a woman from Mildenhall, Suffolk, who were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, are on bail until December 7.

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