A jealous ex-husband who murdered his former wife's new man in an act of revenge was last night starting a 30-year jail sentence.

Allan Kimber, 41, of Stert Street, Abingdon, was yesterday convicted of shooting Gary Morgan yards from his home at Danesbrook Farm, Stanton St John, on October 17 last year.

Mr Morgan, described as a "thoroughly likeable and decent man", was found soaked in his own blood in his car, having been shot in the neck by Kimber.

Armed with a Walther PPK pistol - the type favoured by James Bond - he had bought over the Internet and loaded with home-made bullets, he ambushed his victim as Mr Morgan left for work.

There were gasps and cries from the public gallery as the jury returned their unanimous verdict after almost eight hours of deliberations.

Mr Justice David Calvert-Smith condemned Kimber for his "arrogance" before ordering him to serve at least 30 years behind bars.

He told Kimber: "You are a man who, by your own admission, has been involved in the manufacture and sale of firearms. In the end, the temptation to use such a firearm to kill became overwhelming.

"Whether it was a way of getting back at Helen, or belated retaliation for being kicked out of her home in favour of Gary, or simply that he was a soft target, we may never know.

"The arrogance and lack of human sympathy displayed during the three days you spent in the witness box suggests it may even have been the last of those three."

The 6ft 4in tall Kimber showed no emotion as the judge added: "I see in this a significant degree of premeditation.

"I have found no mitigating features. Gary Morgan was a thoroughly likeable and decent man who died what must have been an agonising and slow death."

Throughout the 11-day trial, the jury had heard the killer bullet had been made by Kimber and had been possibly fired in the Walther PPK, which police had found under Kimber's kitchen sink.

The prosecution team had also shown the jury CCTV footage in which Kimber was seen leaving his flat shortly after 2am on the night of the murder, and returning at about 4am, about 30 minutes after the shooting.

A balaclava found in his jacket contained gunshot residue similar to that found in the cartridges of his pistol.

Six hours after the murder, Kimber had particles removed from his eye at the Radcliffe Infirmary. The jury had heard he had given different people varying accounts of its cause.

He blamed a man called 'Tosh' for the killing - a man no-one else had ever seen or heard of - telling the jury he was exchanging illegal firearms with him on the night of the murder.

An act of revenge and retribution

To friends and neighbours, Allan Kimber was a man like any other. He worked hard, played hard, was polite and friendly.

There were no clues to suggest he was harbouring bitterness, jealousy and hatred towards his ex-wife Helen and her new love Gary Morgan.

These feelings, which he had brooded upon for three years since an acrimonious split, led him to lie in wait for Mr Morgan in the early hours of October 17 last year and shoot him in the neck with a home-made bullet from a weapon he had reactivated.

Neighbours of Kimber, who lived in a one-bedroom flat in Stert Street, Abingdon, have spoken of their shock.

His landlord, Dick Cleeter, said: "When we heard he'd been arrested for murder, we were all shocked. He was always polite and friendly when he spoke to me and my staff. He was a model tenant.

"When we read that a gun used in the murder had been discovered by police in the flat, we were all taken aback.

"It didn't tie in with the sort of man we had come to know."

Colleagues at Stagecoach bus company, where he, Helen and Gary Morgan all worked, spoke equally highly of Kimber, describing him as helpful, friendly and a practical joker.

Ann Wood, a fellow bus driver, said: "He's a lovely person.... he was good fun, never angry or aggressive."

Born in Cirencester in 1965, Kimber moved to Abingdon as a young child and went to Larkmead School.

The Kimbers were "a shooting family" and young Allan became interested in guns when he started shooting with the Scouts. Aged 16, he began working at clay pigeon shoots.

After leaving school, Kimber went to Abingdon College on an engineering course and wanted to apply for a national apprenticeship, but blamed poor careers advice on him not earning a place.

He flitted from job to job before he met his first wife in 1984.

The marriage ended amicably 12 years later and she still lives at the home they shared in Abingdon, with their son.

At about the same time the marriage ended, Kimber took a job as a bus driver at Stagecoach.

It was here he met Helen Morgan who, following a whirlwind romance, became his wife in March 2001 when they married in Jamaica.

When the pair started dating, he said there were "no major problems".

It was only when he said he started to stay at Helen's house, which she shared with her two children Terry and Christine in Weston-on-the-Green, that trouble flared.

Money, an issue which would later plague their relationship and help cause its breakdown, was the source.

He said: "When I started to stay at her's more often at weekends, she asked me for rent. I thought she had a bit of a nerve."

Helen later moved to Blackburn Walk in Bicester with the children and when the pair married, they decided to sell Kimber's Wantage home.

With the profits, he helped clear debts and county court judgements she had, as well as buy new furniture.

But things did not go well in a relationship which Helen described as "stormy".

Kimber's mother said her son would phone, saying he could not bear any more of the "monthly screaming matches" which coincided with Mrs Morgan's pre-menstrual tension.

Kimber booked the couple in for counselling at Relate and at the first and only session they attended, he discovered he was her fourth husband.

He said his wife refused to attend another marriage guidance session and, just over a year after they had tied the knot, she told him to leave their Bicester home.

Kimber was so devastated that he was temporarily removed from bus driving duties.

A bitter feud over property then began, with Kimber telling friends he felt he had lost everything.

Weeks later, Helen took in a lodger, Gary Morgan. The pair struck up a relationship and, in January 2004, he became husband number five.

This and the fact that Kimber felt he had been 'used' financially by his ex-wife, drove him to murder Mr Morgan - "an act of revenge and retribution".