TWO men have been convicted of the murder of businessman Guy Hedger, who was shot dead during a botched burglary at his home.

The 61-year-old was killed with a sawn-off shotgun after intruders broke into his house in Castlewood, St Ives, at about 3am on April 30 2017.

Jason Baccus, 42, of Verney Close, Bournemouth, and Kevin Downton, 40, of Winterborne Stickland, near Blandford, were found guilty following a 40-day trial at Winchester Crown Court.

A third defendant, Scott Keeping, 44, also of Verney Close, was found not guilty of murder and his wife, Helen Keeping, 40, was also cleared of two counts of assisting an offender.

Mr Cooper and husband Simon Hedger-Cooper had been in bed at around 2.45am on the morning of the murder when their dog started barking.

Mr Hedger went to investigate. He returned moments later with two masked men behind him.

One of the men was holding a shotgun, while the second had two bottles of champagne taken from Mr Hedger and Mr Hedger-Cooper's garage. The bottles were being held upside down “as weapons”, jurors heard.

The two victims were then told: “This is a burglary. This is a burglary.

“We’ll shoot you if you don’t do what we say.

“This is a robbery. Lie down and face the wall.”

The couple lay on their stomachs with their dog between them as one of the men ransacked an adjacent dressing room and the second stood over them with the gun.

Two safes were then discovered in the dressing room.

One of the men asked: “What’s the code for the safes?”

Mr Hedger had got up to assist the burglars with the codes, but after giving two digits “froze and seemed to forget what came afterwards”, it was heard.

Mr Hedger-Cooper, who had risen to help, was moving towards the dressing room when he decided to press an alarm button on the bedroom wall, believing both he and his husband would be shot anyway.

The alarm began sounding and the lights flashing when Mr Hedger-Cooper heard a “big boom” and turned to see Mr Hedger had been gunned down.

Baccus and Downton left the property, but first took Mr Hedger-Cooper's mobile phone and the landline telephone to buy themselves time to flee.

Mr Hedger went into cardiac arrest at the scene and was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5am.

He had suffered a number of pellet wounds, as well as one large injury to the left side of his chest.