DJ cleared of helping murderer flee

3:42pm Friday 29th August 2008

A TOP music producer and DJ has been cleared of helping a murderer flee UK justice.

Lee Osborne, aged 25, who has several different addresses including Surrey, Sparks Close, The Exchange, Bromley, and Duddington Court, Mottingham, was acquitted by an Old Bailey jury last week of assisting an offender.

Mr Osborne had been accused of helping John Seton who was convicted on August 22, of murdering Erith garage owner and drug dealer Jon Bartlett, 29, in March 2006.

Mr Bartlett, who owned JB Crash repairs in Pembroke Road, Erith, was shot dead on Chislehurst Common by Seton in a row of drugs debts.

After Seton fled the murder scene, it was alleged Mr Osborne provided him with a new mobile phone and drove him to his Surrey flat.

The court was told Seton was caught on CCTV in a garage in Surrey hours after the shooting, driving a van hired by Mr Osborne.

It was alleged Mr Osborne then moved Seton to a second flat in Bromley, before Seton escaped the UK and used a false name to start drug trafficking in Holland.

But Mr Osborne always maintained he knew nothing about the murder, either before or after it happened, and had hired the van to move house.

Seton, aged 24, formerly from Chislehurst, will be sentenced for Mr Bartlett's murder on September 12.

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