A young mother who blasted a father-of-three to death as his son sat yards away in a parked car has today been jailed for eight years.

Michaela Sargeant, 25, was convicted of the manslaughter of 32-year-old Kevin McKinley outside her home in Overy Street, Dartford.

She had denied murder and was cleared yesterday at the end of a two-week trial. Sargeant began sobbing in the dock as the verdicts were returned.

Sargeant stared ahead as sentence was passed this morning.

Her partner, 26-year-old Lewis Wickenden, was found guilty of assisting an offender - but acquitted of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence by the jury of seven men and five women. Wickenden was jailed for five years today.

The unanimous guilty verdicts came after more than 10 hours of deliberations.

Passing sentence, Judge Jeremy Carey said Sargeant had reached "a state of near hysteria" as a result of Wickenden's continued references to threats by persons unknown when she took the gun into the street.

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He said: "On the jury's verdict, the basis on which you committed the offence, namely unlawful manslaughter, was that you accidentally shot Kevin McKinley in your panic, but you did so at a time when holding the gun with the intention of causing him to fear you were using it upon him.

"Kevin McKinley lay in the road and must have been in agony for a mercifully short time as he lay dying."

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Maidstone Crown Court heard Sargeant and Wickenden were living together with their six-month-old son at the time.

Wickenden claimed threats were being made against his family relating to cannabis and a debt and he had taken the 12-bore semi-automatic shotgun from a friend without his knowledge "for protection".

Just before 8pm on February 12 this year, Mr McKinley arrived at the house wanting a "general chat" with Wickenden.

Video: Police at the scene of the shooting in Dartford in February

After initial refusals, Wickenden went out of his back gate and into Merryweather Close, to greet Mr McKinley.

The two men started brawling. Sargeant then grabbed the single barrel shotgun and, having shoved it towards Mr McKinley, telling him to leave her and her family alone, it was fired twice in quick succession.

One shot hit the road while the other struck Mr McKinley in his left buttock and hip. He was walking away from Sargeant at the time. He later died in hospital.

Mr McKinley, who lived in Louvain Road, Stone, had been driven to Overy Street by Marley Booth, a mutual friend of him and Wickenden.

Also in the car, which parked in nearby Fulwich Road, was Mr McKinley’s son, now aged six.

He waited with Mr Booth in the vehicle and did not witness the shooting.

Mr Booth later told police he heard two loud bangs, drove towards the house and saw Mr McKinley lying in the road.

CCTV footage shown to the jury showed Mr Booth abandoning the car, still with the child inside, on a roundabout to help his stricken friend.

But despite his efforts, those of passers by, paramedics at the scene and doctors at Darent Valley Hospital, Mr McKinley died just before 10.30pm that night from major blood loss.

Within minutes of Mr McKinley being blasted with the shotgun, the same CCTV showed Wickenden driving erratically across the roundabout, leaving the scene with the gun.

The judge said Wickenden was not, as suggested on his behalf, "a Del Boy figure", but "a low level criminal who was also a self-confessed spineless character with apparently a fear of violence and with a distorted view of how to deal with threats and a wholly unrealistic view of what the police are capable of doing on your behalf in the absence of any clear evidence to support any further action".

Speaking after the conviction, Mr McKinley's family released a statement outside court.

It said: "Although in the eyes of the law this has justified the murder of Kev, in our family's eyes there will never be justice for his murder and we are not satisfied with today's outcome.

"They robbed Kev of his life; his children of a daddy; my parents of a son; me, my sisters and brother of a brother and our children of an uncle, and our nan of a grandson and great friend.

"No matter what sentence his killer receives it is us, the family and friends, who must face the rest of our lives without him, who suffer - and Kev will never be forgotten."

They thanked the police, prosecution, Victim Support and others who had supported them through the trial.

DCI Jon Clayden, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "From the moment Sargeant called 999 to report that she heard gun shots outside, to this case coming to court, both she and Lewis Wickenden lied about the parts they played in the killing of Mr McKinley.

"Not only did Sargeant lie when she told the 999 operator that she heard two or three gun shots outside her property on that night, but she also later lied in interview, denying that she had picked up the gun. This story changed when Wickenden told officers that in fact it was Sargeant that fired the shots that killed Mr McKinley.

"Both were swiftly arrested by Kent Police officers and despite the fact both Sargeant and Wickenden lied about the circumstances, the proof of what happened that night was clear enough for the jury to see.

"I welcome today's sentence and hope it will go some way to allowing Mr McKinley’s family to start moving on with their lives."