A former cage-fighter has been jailed for life for gunning down two gangland enforcers linked to an IRA drugs gang.

Drugs mule Thomas Haigh, 26, must serve a minimum of 35 years for blasting David Griffiths and Brett Flournoy to death on a remote Cornish farm because they were demanding he go to Brazil for a second time and
bring back cocaine.

Ross Stone, 28, who was cleared of the men's murders, will serve five years after admitting burning the men's bodies before burying them in their van following the shooting at his home, Sunny Corner Farm, in
Trenance Downs near St Austell.

The bodies of Flournoy, a 31-year-old boxer and pub landlord with two children, from Bebington on the Wirral in Merseyside, and father-of-three Griffiths, 35, from Bracknell, Berkshire, were unearthed after Stone confessed to having disposed of their corpses.

Both he and Haigh owed the dead men around GBP40,000 in drug debts.

Passing sentence at Truro Crown Court, Mr Justice Mackay told Haigh he was an "arrogant young man" who had got out of his depth in the criminal underworld.

"These were bad men but they were bad men with the right not to be killed because trading in drugs does not carry the death penalty," he said.

"You were attracted to the gangster way of life, you convinced yourself you were a big boy playing in the big league.

"But I found your erratic behaviour made you unsuited to this elusive trade.

"This was no more than a result of your chosen lifestyle. You knew the rules of the criminal club you joined and you broke them."

Haigh and Stone's four-week trial heard that the victims were gangland enforcers working for an IRA gang which "ran" Liverpool's illegal drugs trade.

The jury took less than three hours to find Haigh, formerly of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, guilty of two counts of murder.

Stone had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of obstructing a coroner.