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Jealous builder who murdered wife's lover jailed for minimum of 30 years

Andrew Jones (left) murdered Michael O'Leary (right) after luring him to a remote farm. (PA)
Andrew Jones (left) murdered Michael O'Leary (right) after luring him to a remote farm. (PA)

A jealous builder who lured his wife’s secret lover to a remote farm where he shot him dead has been jailed for life.

Andrew Jones will serve a minimum of 30 years behind bars before he can even be considered for parole.

The 53-year-old, of Carmarthen, had denied murder but was convicted after a trial earlier this year.

Swansea Crown Court heard that Jones had discovered that Michael O’Leary, 55, was having an affair with his wife Rhianon, 51, so set about planning revenge.

Andrew Jones' home address and the adjacent yard and quarry area where Michael O'Leary's body was burnt. (PA)
Jones' home address and the adjacent yard and quarry area where O'Leary's body was burnt. (PA)

In a calculated plot, he lured the father-of-three to Cyncoed Farm in Cwmffrwd, Carmarthenshire, on the promise of a ‘cwtch’ - or cuddle - from his lover on the evening of January 27.

Instead of finding Mrs Jones there, O’Leary found her husband crouched behind a dustbin armed with a .22 Colt rifle. Despite pleading: ‘Please don’t do it, Jones,’ O’Leary was gunned down.

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His murderer then made his disappearance look like suicide, driving his Nissan Navara to a riverside car park where he sent messages purporting to be from O’Leary to his wife and children, saying, “I am so sorry x”, before cycling back to the farm.

There he used a forklift truck to load O’Leary’s body into his wife’s car and took it home to Carmarthen where he burnt his remains in a rusty oil drum.

Andrew Jones gunned Michael O'Leary down with a .22 Colt rifle. (PA/Dyfed Powys Police)
Jones gunned down O'Leary with a .22 Colt rifle. (PA/Dyfed Powys Police)

The site manager’s body has never been found and forensic scientists have only ever recovered a small piece of his intestine from the oil drum in a yard next to his home.

Dyfed-Powys Police were alerted by O’Leary’s worried family after receiving the text messages.

They launched a missing person inquiry and arrested the self-employed builder after he admitted luring his love rival to the farm.

The shooting was a culmination of a deteriorating relationship between Joneses as the increasingly paranoid father-of-three used his teenage daughter to spy on her mother having learnt the affair was not over.

Jailing him for life, Mrs Justice Jefford said he would have to serve a minimum of 30 years before he could be considered for parole.

“You are 53 years old and whatever minimum term I impose it is likely you will spend most if not all of the rest of your natural life in custody,” she said.

“You still maintain your account of events and that can give them little comfort.”