From mates to murderers: how killer got his best pal to help in his evil plan

When Steve Welch boarded a flight to Alicante on December 16 last year, he probably didn’t think the next few days may well have been his final period of freedom.

The previous evening he had picked his best mate Mike Reader up in Moulton and then, at the request of his friend, dumped some items in the River Nene for him.

Yet it was no ordinary lift and certainly no ordinary disposal of items in a river, if there ever could be.

For Reader, 70, had just shot his estranged wife Marion Price dead in cold blood from close range outside her flat in Packwood Crescent, Earls Barton.

But he couldn't do it by himself.

He needed to know where she was so he could plan where and when to kill her.

He needed to change the battery on a tracker he fitted on her car, but couldn't be seen near Marion's house because of a restraining order.

He needed someone to pick him up afterwards and dispose of things for him.

He needed someone he could trust to do his dirty work.

That man was Steve Welch.

And Welch thought he had got away with murder as he jetted off to Spain to visit his auntie.

On December 17, two days after the killing, he shared a 'Merry Christmas' memory on Facebook, seemingly oblivious to the fact a team of police officers were waiting to pounce and arrest him on his return to the UK.

He was dramatically detained a few days later at Birmingham Airport.

Yesterday (Thursday) the pair were found guilty of murder.

For more than 35 years Reader and Welch had been friends but during the course of the trial it became obvious that their friendship was no longer rock solid.

Not long after it started an extra dock officer was placed between them and, on every day reporters were present, the pair did not say a word to each other in the dock.

After all Welch, who had never found himself before a court before, had just spent more than nine months in custody accused of a crime he wrongly thought he could convince a jury he did not commit.

At the start of the trial prosecutor Mary Loram QC outlined the Crown's case that Welch’s involvement before and after the shooting made him guilty.

She said: "He may not have pulled the trigger but his role still makes him guilty of murder."

But Welch always maintained that he knew nothing about a plan to kill her, a story the jury did not buy.

His defence barrister, John Cammegh QC, painted a picture of a man clueless about what would happen on the evening of December 15 in his opening speech.

After more than six weeks of listening to the prosecution's case and then watching Reader give evidence, it was Welch's turn to take to the witness box.

He rattled through his life story, telling jurors how close the pair were and how Reader had helped him after a difficult break-up.

They first met more than 35 years ago through Welch’s older brother Alan, and got to know each other more through the motor trade.

For a while Welch worked for Reader, helping him with paintwork and car repairs. They soon became good friends.

Welch said: "I used to take my second wife and children to his house.

"We would have BBQs, splash about in the pool. Basically it just carried on from there."

After two failed marriages Welch was engaged to a woman between 1997 and 2001, but had to close his business after he had a back operation.

One day, out of the blue, his fiancee came home and told him their relationship was over. Welch was left on medication for depression.

He told the jury: "It messed me up quite a lot."

Reader took him in, putting a roof over his head for about four months before Welch moved to Australia.

He later went to Thailand to see his brother and met a woman there, who he married and is still with now. The self-taught mechanic had always promised to build her a house, he told the jury.

In 2012 Welch moved back to the UK to live with his mother, providing full-time care to her as her health deteriorated.

He became even closer to Reader, attending both days of a GBH trial to support his friend when he was cleared of attacking Marion with a mallet.

Welch also helped Reader to raise the roof of his bungalow in Booth Rise, Northampton, to build a snooker room. He would go round ‘seven days a week’ to play snooker with him.

Their friendship then escalated from potting reds to running a surveillance operation, with Reader obsessively stalking Marion after she had plucked up the courage to leave him.

Welch drove him around to do so - making sure Marion and her family members wouldn't see Reader's car if they were passing when they were lurking nearby.

Welch said he took it that Reader had his reasons for stalking her, but was asked how he felt about his conduct now.

"I feel like s**t", he replied.

Welch told jurors he sought justice for Marion.

Marion's family now have justice - with Reader and Welch each facing a life sentence.