Man accused of Horner murder directed gun man to his target, court is told
A MAN accused of murder outside a supermarket in Northern Ireland “directed” the gunman to his target, police said.
Colin Horner (35) was stalked for up to 11 days before he was shot dead while putting his three-year-old son into his car in Bangor, Co Down, last May, a court was told.
Joseph Blair (34) was allegedly a passenger in a “surveillance” car which sat for hours outside Mr Horner’s home in the seaside town on the day of his death and followed him as he visited local shops, investigators said.
Blair is suspected of calling in the shooter while the victim was returning to his car in a busy Sainsbury’s car park.
A lone assailant fired five shots at him but has never been caught, a senior detective said.
Blair allegedly made a six-minute call to the gunman beforehand and mobile phone analysis and DNA evidence from the car was used to link him to the crime, the detective inspector told Newtownards Magistrates Court on Friday.
He said: “The role that this individual played, we believe, was that as the passenger he would have directed the gunman to the scene.”
There was an increased security presence as the accused, from Shackleton Walk in Newtownards, was led into the dock flanked by prison officers.
He was stoutly-built, slouched in his chair and wore a grey T-shirt and unbuttoned cardigan, nodding to confirm he understood the charges.
Blair is accused of murdering Mr Horner and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger
life. On the day of the attack, Mr Horner had travelled from his home to a nearby convenience store on the Rathgael Road.
The detective added: “Police have evidence to show that the black Ford Focus was directly behind the victim during that time.
“Mr Blair makes a six-minute phone call, police would say to the gunman to direct them that the IP (injured person or party) is on the move.”
The Ford Focus carrying Blair was just 30ft away when the shooting was later carried out, police said.
It was in the car park before and at the time of the shooting and left two minutes after the murder, where it went to meet the red Ford Mondeo carrying the gunman at Six Road Ends, a few miles south of Bangor.
It conveyed the gunman back to a yard in Newtownards, Co Down, the detective added.
Police can prove the movements of the mobile phone attributed to Blair through various cell site locations right up to being in close proximity to the victim when he was on the move on the afternoon of his death, the court was told.
The phone was also at Sainsbury’s car park at the time of the murder and at Kerr’s Road shortly afterwards.
It was turned off 30 minutes later and police have never found it.
During that time, Blair was in contact with a co-accused in the murder but not with the driver of the black Focus, the detective said, which was why police believed he was a passenger in the Focus.
DNA evidence was retrieved from the seat belt buckle of the passenger seat of the Focus.
When that was put to him during police questioning he said he may have been in the car at some stage.
Blair’s barrister summarised the case against his client, in which he is accused of being a passenger in the black Ford Focus “in convoy with the injured person because it was carrying out surveillance work”.
He said the mobile phone was central to the prosecution case but added it had been used by someone else in the period before the killing.
The police officer acknowledged the defence’s suggestion that someone else had also used the phone at around the same time.
Two men aged 28 and 29 have already been charged with the murder.
District judge Austin Kennedy refused bail and Blair was remanded in custody until next month.