Terence Whall, 39, was convicted of the murder of Gerald Corrigan, 74, who was shot as he adjusted a satellite dish outside his home in the early hours of April 19 last year. 

Anna Pope, prosecuting, said Whall, had given no motive for the killing and there was no evidence of a connection between him and Mr Corrigan, who died on May 11. 

Speaking from behind a screen at Mold Crown Court in North Wales, Mr Corrigan’s son Neale said through tears: “How can someone choose to use such a barbaric weapon on an old man? 

“Did they really want to cause him a slow and painful death? Because that is what we witnessed.” 

Also from behind a screen, Mr Corrigan’s partner Marie Bailey said: “It is a terrible inferno inside me every day, thinking of how Gerry suffered.”

Sentencing Whall to life in prison, Mrs Justice Jefford told him: “Your arrogant belief that you could get away with murder was misplaced.” 

Ms Pope said Whall, originally from east London, had hidden behind a wall outside the pensioner’s remote home in Anglesey and tampered with the satellite dish to lure him into the garden. 

Whall initially claimed he was at home in Bryngwran on the night of the shooting but, when the GPS data in his Land Rover Discovery was recovered, he said he was having a sexual encounter in a nearby field. 

North Wales Police said a parallel fraud investigation was ongoing after claims Mr Corrigan and Ms Bailey handed over £250,000 to convicted fraudster Richard Wyn Lewis. 

Whall was given a concurrent sentence of six years for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice for a plot to set fire to his Land Rover, which was discovered burnt-out on June 3. 

The court heard that Whall was heavily in debt.

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