The 'vigiliante' thug who thought he had got away with a brutal murder

Dressed in a parka, jeans and crisp white trainers, a scowling Michael Hillier poses for a photograph.

A pair of guns slung across each shoulder, he has the arrogant look of a man who think himself untouchable. The haunting image was taken before the drug dealer went on to carry out a savage murder.

Hillier, 39, blasted dad-of-two Liam Smith in the face yards from his home in Wigan, before dousing his body in sulphuric acid.

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He claimed to have been acting in revenge after his girlfriend, Rachel Fulstow, told him she'd been raped by Mr Smith years earlier during a Tinder date.

But rather than going to the police, the pair decided to seek 'vigilante justice'. They plotted Mr Smith's death over a 10-month period, before drug dealer Hillier made the trip to Kilburn Drive in Shevington to kill the 38-year-old on November 24 last year.

A jury on Wednesday found both Hillier and Fulstow, 37, guilty of murder following a six-week trial at Minshull Street Crown Court. Fulstow was also convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Following the murder, the couple enacted an elaborate plan to avoid justice. Days later, they went on a two-week trip to Jamaica. When they returned home, the net began to close.

Hillier was arrested. Fulstow was initially treated as a witness but became a suspect after she repeatedly lied to officers during her interview.

Mr Smith was a former soldier who ran his own business, LPS Electrical and Build Ltd. He was a devoted father. The court heard Fulstow met Mr Smith on dating app Tinder and the pair went on a date in York in 2019, when she said they had 'non-consensual sex' at a hotel in York. She did not describe it as