A teenager who shot dead a man at a petrol station in Essex and then went on the run to Amsterdam has been jailed for at least 22 years for murder.

Bradley Blundell, 19, shot 34-year-old John Pordage in the chest over flirtatious comments either he or his friend allegedly made to Blundell’s 18-year-old friend Ella Colgate at a BP garage in Chelmsford.

Mr Pordage died of his injuries on August 5 2017. Blundell was 17 at the time.

Bradley Blundell court case
John Pordage, 34, who was shot dead by Bradley Blundell, 19 (Essex Police/ PA)

He was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of murder and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

He was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday to life in prison with a minimum term of 22 years, Essex Police said.

Colgate, of Aldridge Close, Chelmsford, who drove Blundell to and from the scene of the shooting, was found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

She was jailed for 12 months, police said.

Ella Colgate, 18, was jailed for 12 months for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. (Essex Police/ PA)
Ella Colgate, 18, was jailed for 12 months for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice (Essex Police/ PA)

John Pordage’s mother, Sue Wilson, said Blundell was “evil and calculated” and that she has been “so consumed with the twisted feelings of anger and hatred that I have struggled to function”.

Blundell, of Cromwell Close, Boreham, handed himself in at an Amsterdam police station on March 31 last year and was detained under a European Arrest Warrant.

It followed an extensive manhunt.