PARENTS, friends and investigators have shared all in a candid documentary on the murder of 34-year-old John Pordage.

Channel 5 Star’s Killer Kid: The Murder of John Pordage centres around the incident that saw Mr Pordage attacked with a cosh, and 17-year-old Bradley Blundell fatally shoot him on August 5, 2017, at a BP garage in Baddow Road, Great Baddow.

Following an exchange of words at the petrol station, Blundell shot Mr Pordage, who grew up in South Woodham Ferrers, at point blank range, with one shot hitting a telephone box down the road and the other hitting him in the chest.

Gazette: Photo: Essex PolicePhoto: Essex Police

At the time Blundell was on bail for offences that included possession of class A drugs and handling two knives in a public place.

Detective Chief Inspector Martin Pasmore, of the Kent and Essex Crime Directorate, said: “When you look at the amount of firearms offences in Essex, they are nothing like this.”

After the incident, Blundell, of Cromwell Close, Boreham directed driver of a blue Ford Fiesta, Ella Colgate, 19, and a group including 18-year-old Saul Stanley, a 16-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons and Colgate’s friend, Florence Lawes, to the Saltmarshes in Maldon.

Mr Pasmore said they burned their clothes, and Blundell even covered himself in petrol to remove any evidence. He added: “Blundell had washed himself in petrol so there was clearly forensic awareness amongst them to deal with that aspect of gunshot residue.

“We found areas of burned grass, buttons from jeans and it started to transpire that it was Blundell that was directing the actions that took place here.”

Gazette: Photo: Essex PolicePhoto: Essex Police

The incident sent shockwaves through the city of Chelmsford.

Det Sgt Louise Giles, of Essex Police, said: “It was something everybody was so impacted by because nobody ever imagined that it would happen. These were kids, kids with guns.”

A manhunt then ensued, with Stanley and the unnamed teen already in custody, but Blundell was still at large.

Sue Wilson, Mr Pordage’s mother, remembered the moment she was asked to identify her son’s body.

Ms Giles described the moment as one of the hardest parts of the investigation.

Mrs Wilson said: “You go in there, and you can’t go near him because it’s a crime scene, because John is a crime scene.

“So I thought, why are they doing now whatever they want to do, but I cannot kiss or touch John.”

Mrs Wilson believed all the teenagers inside the vehicle should have been arrested for Mr Pordage’s death.

While the other suspects were in custody, Blundell had travelled across Europe in order to evade capture.

Phone records found him the day after Mr Pordage’s death at Selfridges in London, shopping for his girlfriend. His phone later popped up in Norwich and Enfield, and then he went “off the grid”.

Gazette: Photo: Essex PolicePhoto: Essex Police

Officers assumed he had gone into hiding abroad, and a continent-wide search began. In December 2017, police released CCTV footage of Blundell from the night of Mr Pordage’s death. The footage showed Blundell wearing the same clothes as the suspect involved in the incident with Mr Pordage outside the petrol station in the early hours of August 5.

In January 2018, Mr Pasmore had to face the press and admit officers were not sure of the whereabouts of Blundell at that time.

After 239 days on the run, on March 30, Blundell handed himself into police in Amsterdam, shortly after his fellow suspects had appeared in court and been sentenced.

He was extradited back to the UK and held in Chelmsford Prison until he appeared in court.

At trial, Blundell claimed to be holding the cosh that struck Mr Pordage and that he never handled the gun.

Mark Jones, who had been friends with Mr Pordage since they were nine, said: “I locked eyes with him in that courtroom, he just stared at me, pure evil.” After CCTV investigation, the prosecution proved Blundell’s claim to be wrong.

The jury later found Blundell guilty of the murder of Mr Pordage, a result the victim’s mother described as a “relief”.

On January 25 this year at Chelmsford Crown Court, at the age of 19, Blundell was sentenced to 22 years in prison for murder.

Mrs Wilson added: “I do not think people realise how bad it has got.

“Everything has changed. I’m not the same person I was before, I know that he will be saying; ‘Mum, go and get a life’, but what sort of life?”

Gazette: Photo: Essex PolicePhoto: Essex Police

Blundell “smirked” as he was sentenced by Judge Charles Gratwicke, while the family and friends of Mr Pordage cheered.

The documentary was shown on 5Star on Tuesday.