Colin Anditon’s family won a hard-fought campaign for him to be transferred back to the UK to serve out his sentence in 2012
Colin Anditon’s family won a hard-fought campaign for him to be transferred back to the UK to serve out his sentence in 2012
A drug dealer who was caught red-handed by county lines investigators in Birkenhead previously served 20 years in an American prison after being caught up in a gangland shooting. Colin Anditon, now 53, was just 18 when he stole a car that went on to be used in a drive-by shotgun murder in Pomona, California, in 1990.
Anditon’s family won a hard-fought campaign for him to be transferred back to the UK to serve out the rest of his sentence in November 2012. In 2014, it was announced that he had received permission from the High Court to apply for parole.
He eventually regained his freedom, but was recalled to prison last year after being detained in Birkenhead. Anditon and Leanne Taylor, 47, were spotted carrying out a drug deal in an alleyway off Corporation Road, and a subsequent search found 51 wraps of heroin and five wraps of crack cocaine concealed in Taylor’s underwear.
The pair were caught on January 16 2024, when Merseyside Police officers investigating county lines dealing spotted them leaving an address on Corporation Road at around 12.40pm. They went into the alleyway, where Anditon approached a parked taxi and engaged in a drug deal with a female passenger.
The plain-clothes officers detained Anditon, who had £46 cash in his left hand. The female taxi passenger was also searched and found to have two wraps of crack cocaine and one wrap of heroin, believed to have been sold to her by Anditon.
Four months later, on May 2 2024, he was arrested again after he was seen entering and leaving a property on Beresford Road, Oxton, with another man.
The man Anditon was with was detained and found to be in possession of drugs and money. A subsequent search of Beresford Road found 20 wraps of heroin and nine wraps of crack cocaine concealed in a coat belonging to Anditon.
At Liverpool Crown Court yesterday, December 16, prosecutor Andrew McInnes said: “Colin Anditon is 53 with 13 convictions for 26 offences, many for dishonesty, but a significant conviction from the USA in 1993 when he received an indeterminate sentence.”
This sentence related to the drive-by shooting of another man in October 1990, which was said to be part of a “gangland feud”. The American jury found that Anditon was in the car at the time, but did not fire the shotgun. There was also no evidence that he was himself a member of the street gang involved.
Anditon (who moved from Birkenhead to California in 1989) was sentenced to 25 years to life, with the jury finding he was guilty of “wilful, deliberate and premeditated” murder. Had he been convicted and sentence in an English court, the High Court said he would probably have received a maximum sentence of 20 years – a term that would have expired in 2013.
Speaking to the ECHO in 2014, his mum Maureen Burgess said: “Colin openly admitted to stealing the car. He held his hands up to it – but not to being in that car at the time of the murder. Even the jury didn’t believe he was the shooter.
“He said would do 99 years and a day before admitting to a murder he never did and I’m right behind him.”
Following his arrest in May last year, he was recalled to prison on licence. He appeared in court via a video link from HMP Berwyn.
Ken Heckle, defending, said the 53-year-old had spent time in mental health hospitals following his arrests. He said: “It may well be impacted by cocaine use, but he’s still being treated in a mental health wing in prison. He’s probably that much more obviously vulnerable because of how this exhibits.
“I accept cocaine use is there as well, but it doesn’t appear to be if you get rid of the cocaine use, you get rid of all the problems. These are long-term mental health issues.
“Obviously there has been a long time of incarceration both here and in America. On a happier note, he seems to be thriving and doing a lot better within the prison system.”
Judge Robert Trevor-Jones sentenced Anditon to 24 months in prison relating to the offences in January 2024, and 18 months relating to the offences in May 2024, making a total of three years and five months in prison.
