A former inmate has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 45 years after murdering an ex-prison officer in a revenge killing.

Elias Morgan, 35, shot father-of-three Lenny Scott six times at close range as he left a gym in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, on 8 February 2024.

Preston Crown Court heard that four years earlier, while working at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool, Mr Scott, 33, had recovered a mobile phone from Morgan's cell in March 2020.

It revealed the inmate was having an affair with a female prison guard named Sarah Williams.

Morgan, from Edge Hill, Liverpool, first tried to bribe Mr Scott by offering him £1,500 to not report the find.

When Mr Scott refused and reported the phone, Morgan threatened the then-prison officer's family and told him: "I'll bide my time, but I promise I will get you."

CCTV footage captured the moment Mr Scott was gunned down while Morgan was on bail for having the phone in his cell.

Mr Scott had left the Prison Service three years before the shooting took place.

Morgan handed himself in to police after his name began circulating in connection with the attack.

The killer denied any involvement but was convicted of murder by a jury last Friday.

Anthony Cleary, 29, a friend of Morgan's who had been accused of helping to plan the shooting, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter at Preston Crown Court on the same day.

Mr Scott's mother Paula read an impact statement from the witness box during the sentencing on Tuesday and told Morgan: "My son was everything you are not. He was strong, brave, honest, respectful. He lost his life for standing up for what was right. You are a vile, inhuman, coward. Lenny, thank you for being my son, I will forever be proud of you."

She later said outside court: "Morgan has no regard for the impact of his actions. He not only has stolen Lenny's future, but he has stolen our future with him."

Mr Scott's ex-partner Lucy Griffiths, the mother of his twin boys, described him as a devoted father and a "kind, caring and compassionate man".

Ms Griffiths said when she got the telephone call to say Mr Scott had been killed, his boys were bouncing on their beds because he was due to visit them that day.

They still ask if they can go to see him in heaven, Ms Griffiths said, and she finds notes under their pillows asking him to come back home.

Lucy Carnhill, mother of Mr Scott's young daughter, said the child "was his world".

Detective Chief Inspector Lee Wilson told reporters outside court: "Lenny was murdered by Elias Morgan in a vengeful and cold-blooded assassination.

"It is one of the most callous, brutal and inhumane things I have ever seen in my 30 years as a police officer."

Scott's fears for family's safety

During the nine-week trial a recording of a 101 call that Mr Scott made days after finding the phone in 2020 was played to the court.

In the recording, he said: "Hi, I'm an officer at HMP Altcourse, I've just been informed that there's been a car sat outside my house all weekend, by a prisoner."

After the operator asked Scott who was threatening him, he replied: "Elias Morgan, he's described my family and me to a tee. Described my house... Just in fear for my family's life, that's all."

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Morgan wasn't charged in relation to the discovery of the phone until April 2023.

He denied a charge of unauthorised possession of the mobile phone and a court hearing was scheduled for 19 February 2024 - 11 days after Mr Scott was murdered.

Meanwhile, Williams admitted three offences of misconduct in a public office in June 2023.

Morgan's conviction in relation to the shooting came after detectives traced phone and vehicle data revealing how he spent time stalking his victim to learn his daily schedule in the weeks before the attack.

The jury also heard Morgan had scouted out places, including Mr Scott's home, as he planned the murder.

He later shot Mr Scott once in the head and five times in the body before fleeing on an electric scooter.

The gun used in the murder has never been recovered.

(c) Sky News 2025: Ex-prisoner jailed for shooting dead guard in revenge killing after he exposed affair