Jilted boyfriend jailed for murder
Jonathan Cock was yesterday jailed for at least 25 years for the horrific murder of Adam Hustler and for seriously injuring his wife Amanda.
The 24-year-old believed the devout Jehovah's Witnesses had broken up his relationship with their 20-year-old daughter Danielle.
Showing no mercy, on September 20 last year, he armed himself with a fully loaded .22 calibre rifle and spare cartridges stolen from his father.
Then he sent the object of his twisted affection a series of chilling text messages.
He demanded that she meet him for a reconciliation and warned: "Don't make me choose the hard option."
When Miss Hustler did not appear, he went looking for her. Enraged, he went to her family's comfortable, detached home in the tiny hamlet of Porth Kea, near Truro, and unleashed the bloody attack on her family.
As his terrified ex-girlfriend cowered in a ground-floor room frantically dialling 999, he twice fired through the window, with one bullet grazing her arm.
Then Cock, of Moor Vue Farm, Penzance, shot himself in the mouth.
Yesterday, he appeared in the dock at Truro Crown Court and admitted murdering 41-year-old Mr Hustler, wounding his wife and possessing a firearm.
Wearing a blue shirt and trousers with his blond hair cropped short, he appeared to stare impassively into middle distance as he was jailed for 25 years.
Mr Justice Royce said Cock, who served for four years in the RAF, believed Mr and Mrs Hustler were "highly influential" in the ending of the relationship.
He told Cock: "The carnage that you caused that night was chilling, terrible and tragic.
"Its effect on the Hustler family could not have been more devastating.
"It is also a tragedy for you and your family, but you are still alive and Mr Hustler is not."
The judge said Cock was "frustrated and angry" over the break-up of his relationship. "There is no doubt that thousands and thousands of young men are romantically thwarted.
"But your reaction to your predicament was extreme and it was selfish."
Mr Justice Royce paid tribute to the Hustler family and said he had been deeply moved by the statements they had given describing the impact on their lives.
He read out an excerpt written by Mrs Hustler, 40, about her husband, saying it deserved to be heard in open court.
It said: "I have lost my friend, my mentor, my clown, my lover, my companion of 24 years. I have had my life and that of my children ransacked by these actions and I have lost the man I loved."
Outside the court, a friend of the Hustler family, Tim Mears, spoke on their behalf to say it was a "distressing time for the family as it brings back to mind details of the tragedy".
He added: "Their faith in God and his power to put things right is a source of great comfort to them at this time."
