GUNS used to kill Richard Holmes in Chingford were converted into live weapons at a Berkshire factory.

Grant Wilkinson, 34, was convicted yesterday at Reading Crown Court of seven offences of converting and supplying firearms linked to at least eight murders.

The weapons were converted in two disused outbuildings in the countryside which Wilkinson took over and rented out to tenants.

Guns converted at the factory were used by Anthony Green and Carl Dobson to shoot dead Mr Holmes, of Chingford, after a row over lyrics in a rap song.

He was killed in Greenham Crescent, Chingford Hall Estate, in November 2005.

Dobson, 23, of Stratford, and Green, 35, of Loughton, were given 30-year minimum terms when they appeared at the Old Bailey in November 2006.

Guns from the factory have also been linked to the killing of a 15-year-old in Peckham, south London, and one of the guns was used during an armed robbery in Bradford, west Yorkshire, which led to the death of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, although it was not the murder weapon.

Jurors found Wilkinson guilty of seven offences, which included conspiracy to convert imitation firearms, conspiracy to sell or transfer firearms, conspiracy to sell or transfer ammunition, two counts of possession of firearms with intent to endanger life, and two counts of possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Two charges against him of possessing a prohibited weapon were dropped.

Wilkinson denied all nine charges against him, claiming in his defence that he was working for a man called Kevin Danaher, who was murdered in May 2006.