Stephen Seddon was told he would never be paroled after being
convicted of the murders of his father Robert, 68, and mother Patricia, 65 -
and their attempted murders four months earlier.
They had made the 46-year-old the sole beneficiary of their
estate in their will - and paid with their lives.
They had already gifted Seddon £40,000 in cash and bought him
his home in Benevente Street in Seaham, Co Durham.
During the trial, prosecutor Peter Wright described Seddon as
the ultimate "ungrateful son".
The convicted fraudster, who was said to have had an
"insatiable thirst for cash", had tried to kill the elderly couple by
driving into the Bridgewater Canal in Timperley, south Manchester, with them
strapped in the back seats in a faked road accident.
Seddon then "played the hero" and boasted of his
rescue attempts after he was forced to abort his murder plan when bystanders
went to their aid in the submerged hired BMW.
He had taken his parents - and his disabled nephew Daniel, who
also managed to get to safety - out on March 20 last year on the pretext of a
surprise belated Mother's Day meal.
Undeterred, on July 4 of that year he shot his parents dead with
a sawn-off shotgun at their home in Clough Avenue in Sale, Greater Manchester.
Seddon had taken three shotgun cartridges with him. Police
believe he also intended to kill his nephew, who he did not realise was in
respite care that day.
Mr Justice Hamblen told him: "In effect you have executed
your own parents. You have done so by the barbaric act of shooting them at
point- blank range with a sawn-off shotgun."
He added: "One can only imagine the horror of your parents'
last moments in this life, when they realised what a monster their son, whom
they loved, had become. Mercifully their deaths were swift."
He went on to say that, in Seddon's case, life should mean life
and he ordered that he serve a whole-life term - which means the
father-of-three will never be released.
Seddon had denied the shooting and said it was
"ridiculous" to claim he had tried to kill his own mother and father
and "sick" to suggest he had intended to murder his nephew as well.
As he was sentenced, Seddon continued to protest his innocence,
shouting from the dock: "No, not at all, they were not murdered by me at
all. I'm an innocent man."
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