THIS is the face of Halloween night killer Heather Stephenson-Snell who today started a life sentence for the murder of a stranger.

Dressed in a mask inspired by the horror movie Scream and armed with a sawn-off shotgun, the 46-year-old crazed psychotherapist had intended to kill the lover of her ex-boyfriend.

She turned up on the doorstep of Diane Lomax's home in Holland Street, Radcliffe, wearing the mask and covered from head to toe by a white sheet.

But the plot went wrong when Mrs Lomax did not answer and her neighbour, ex-soldier Robert Wilkie, told the caller to quieten down as she banged furiously on the door.

Mr Wilkie, aged 43, assumed she was a teenager playing a harmless prank, but, when she continued her knocking he confronted her in the street. He ripped the mask from her face but was then she shot in the stomach at point blank range.

Stephenson-Snell - her face injured by the recoil of the gun - then fled in an old, untaxed car leaving Mr Wilkie dying on the pavement. She was stopped by police on the motorway heading towards Yorkshire. Officers found a shotgun, cartridges and a bloodstained sheet. They also found a dagger ticked into her waistband and more knives.

Shotgun ammunition owned by Stephenson-Snell was later discovered.

The jealous killer claimed she shot Mr Wilkie by accident as they struggled but, as revealed in later editions of the Bolton Evening News last night, the jury did not believe her and found her guilty of murdering Mr Wilkie and attempting to murder Mrs Lomax.

She was jailed for life with the judge, Mr Justice Wakerley, recommending she should serve a minimum of 22 years before being considered for release.

Stephenson-Snell, of Crombie Avenue, York, stood expressionless in the dock as the judge at Manchester Crown Court told her: "Your lies were breathtaking - shameless. I note and endorse that I see absolutely no hint of remorse at what you have done."

There were cheers and clapping from Mr Wilkie's family sitting in the public gallery as the jury announced the verdicts. Mr Wilkie's partner, Debbie O'Brien, and his brother, Billy, burst into tears.

Throughout the 12-day trial, the jury had heard how Stephenson-Snell's obsession with former lover Adrian Sinclair had led her to harass him and his new girlfriend Diane Lomax.

When threats and making false accusations to police of paedophilia against them did not work, Stephenson-Snell - head of an all-woman Hells Angels chapter - began planning to murder Ms Lomax and frame her ex-lover for the crime.

For weeks she plotted in detail how she would carry out the crime, finally opting to gun Ms Lomax down at her home on Halloween, the anniversary of her being jilted by Sinclair.

She meticulously planned her route to Radcliffe on index cards which gave specific directions and mileages to Holland Street and detailed what she should take with her and wear.

Part of her surreal preparations included dressing in the ghost costume, beneath which she concealed a loaded sawn-off shotgun and covering her face with a terrifying Scream mask before knocking on Ms Lomax's door at 12.40am.

The judge described her disguise as "a ridiculous ghoulish costume".

Stephenson-Snell had planned to blast Ms Lomax to death on her doorstep.

But her scheme went wrong when her victim, alarmed by the appearance of the figure she saw through a spy hole, refused to open the door.

The noise of the knocking alerted Mr Wilkie, who was about to go to bed with his partner Debbie O'Brien.

Concerned about their four sleeping children, Mr Wilkie went out into the street and confronted the visitor. In a bid to identify her, Mr Wilkie pulled the mask off Stephenson-Snell's face.

Stephenson-Snell raised the gun she had hidden and pulled the trigger, the shotgun cartridge blasting through the layers of her ghost outfit and into Mr Wilkie's abdomen at point-blank range. He died on the pavement a short time later.

The horror figure's getaway was foiled when two police officers spotted her car being driven too slowly on the M62 in West Yorkshire.

Unaware of the murder, they pulled her over and then arrested her after spotting the shotgun and blood-splattered ghost costume in the car.

In a desperate bid to avoid being connected to the crime, Stephenson-Snell gave a series of false identities and claimed the gun and knives officers found in the car belonged to a boyfriend.

When her real identity was established, she then claimed the gun had belonged to her intended victim, Diane Lomax, and she had wrestled it off her.

This too was proved to be a lie when the only DNA found on the weapon belonged to Stephenson-Snell and Mr Wilkie.

Her lies continued in court when she claimed the gun had gone off accidentally as Mr Wilkie attacked her.

She eventually admitted the index cards, detailing her horrific plans, were instructions for visiting Holland Street, after initially maintaining they were plans for attending a Halloween party.

But the jury saw through her lies and, after they had found her guilty, psychiatric reports done on the murderer while she was in custody revealed she had a histrionic personality disorder.

She was described as someone who sought out activities which would put her at the centre of attention, an individual who was egotistical, self-indulgent and manipulative.

Mr Justice Wakerley told her the attempted murder of Ms Lomax, for which she received an 18-year jail sentence, was "one of the worst cases that has been before me".

Since the murder, Ms Lomax and Adrian Sinclair have separated. Ms Lomax has moved away from Holland Street to pick up the pieces of her life.