A MAN has been found guilty of the murder of Westhoughton dad Michael Blake.

Nathan Daniels, aged 28, of Nottingham Avenue, Stockport, was found guilty by a jury at Manchester Crown Court this afternoon.

Mr Blake was shot in the back of the head and in the leg before being dumped back outside his own Westhoughton home on November 3 last year. 

The jury took around six hours to reach a majority verdict, with 10 of them in agreement that Daniels murdered 28-year-old Mr Blake. 

Following the verdict, Daniels said ‘you have made a mistake’ and told the court that he ‘didn’t commit a crime’.

The judge, Mr Justice George Leggett, told Daniels that he ‘was not
interested in his views about the verdict’. 

The trial had heard how Daniels had driven with Joe Wilson and Nathan Quigley to Mr Blake’s home in Manchester Road and took the victim in a van to an isolated area off nearby Long Lane where he was shot twice, once in the knee and once in the back of his head with a 9mm handgun by Daniels.

The shot to the leg was described in court as a ‘kneecapping’.

His body was dumped back outside his home. Quigley remained there and informed Mr Blake’s partner, Lauren Sydall, that he was lying outside.

An ambulance was called and Mr Blake was taken to hospital where he died the following day. 

Neither the van nor the handgun have been recovered.

The prosecution told the court that Mr Blake was killed in a dispute over ‘drugs or money or both’. 

Searches by police of Mr Blake’s home and car following his death uncovered a protective vest, a machete and a significant quantity of cocaine. 

More than £1,000 in cash and £2,000-£3,000 of cocaine was found in the pockets of the jacket Mr Blake was wearing when he was shot. 

Miss Sydall said in a statement she gave to police in December last year, that she was not aware of him being involved in any criminality but admitted ‘you don’t get shot for nothing’.

When she was questioned in court about his secretive nature and asked if she ever felt he was leading a ‘double life’, Miss Sydall said ‘not to the best of my knowledge’.

Daniels claimed that the gun had gone off accidentally during a struggle, initially claiming the bullets must have ricochetted before hitting the victim. 

DNA found on the casing of the bullet that killed Mr Blake was a match for Daniels’.

Mr Blake, who was nicknamed Blakey, was buried following a funeral in December and tributes were paid to him as a ‘wonderful son, brother, friend and father’. 

Daniels, a married father-of-two, defended himself in court. 

A number of friends and relatives of both the defendant and the victim were present in the court for the verdict. 

Four men had already admitted their involvement in Mr Blake’s killing.

Wilson, aged 27, of Romney Way, Stockport and Quigley, aged 32, of Cleworth Walk, Hulme, have both pleaded guilty to manslaughter while Brendan Fallon, aged 35, of Whitsbury Avenue, Gorton and John Edwards, aged 46 and of Farley Way, Reddish, Stockport have both admitted assisting an offender.

Fallon owns car garages in Greater Manchester and the van in which Mr Blake was shot was taken to these to be concealed.

Edwards runs a specialist cleaning business and was asked by Daniels to clean a van on the night Mr Blake was shot. 

All five men will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court tomorrow.