QC: This is about evidence, not about the police
PROSECUTION’S CLOSING SPEECH IN OLD BAILEY TRIAL OF JOHN HENRY SAYERS
JURORS were told the Tup Tup shooting trial was “not about Northumbria Police” after defendant John Henry Sayers’ claimed that they “fitted him up”.
Prosecutor Simon Denison QC made his closing speech at the Old Bailey yesterday, outlining the prosecution’s case that Sayers ordered the shooting in June 2015.
Mr Denison said Sayers’ “constant refrain” in his evidence was “it’s Northumbria Police” and that he “always blamed Northumbria Police”.
He told the court: “He did it in 1990 when he was convicted and his appeal was dismissed. He did it in 2008 when he pleaded guilty.
“He did it in 2010 when the case was stopped, but the judge specifically found no criticism of what Northumbria Police had done.
“I don’t suggest for a second he was guilty on any of the occasions he was acquitted, but I do suggest what he does is blame Northumbria Police - and he’s done it in this case.
“But the evidence in this case came from CCTV, DNA and independent evidence from firearms experts.
“This case isn’t about Northumbria Police, it’s about the evidence.”
Sayers is on trial accused of ordering the shooting in “revenge” for his son being thrown out of the club two weeks earlier - allegedly to “reinforce the message - ‘don’t mess with the Sayers.’”
Mr Denison told jurors: “Sayers would have you believe his reputation is all in the past.
“But that wasn’t the evidence of the witnesses who worked in the nighttime economy and had seen his reputation and the effects of it.
“Grant Stevens said the reputation was that they were a gangster family and that the Sayers family were very prominent in the town.
“Matthew McCauley said people used his name as intimidation.”
Mr Denison also highlighted that in evidence Sayers claimed he was told “nothing of any significance happened” during the incident between his son and door staff at Tup Tup, but that “his reaction told quite a different story”.
He told the court Sayers “instructed” former Tup Tup doorman Russell Sturman to “go to Tup Tup Palace and get the CCTV footage” of the incident.
Sturman is on trial with Sayers accused of assisting an offender by getting the CCTV footage and taking pictures of the log showing which staff were working that night.
The prosecution say this was Sturman helping Sayers to “find out the name of the bouncer who punched his son”.
Mr Denison said Sturman was “obviously a man with good character” but “his character doesn’t provide him with a defence”.
“He didn’t have to ingratiate himself with Sayers and put himself in a position where ultimately he was used by him.
“There’s evidence to show he enjoyed being in with the Sayers.”
Prosecutors also highlighted “overwhelming” DNA evidence against accused Michael Dixon as they sought to convince jurors he was the gunman in the shooting.
Mr Denison reminded jurors a piece of shotgun cartridge wadding found at the scene of the shooting - known as exhibit PD/1 - had DNA evidence linking it to Dixon.
He acknowledged that scientists agreed the officer who seized it, PC Paul Denyer, had increased the possibility of contamination in his handling of the wadding because he “didn’t follow best practice”.
But he said the DNA evidence against Dixon was still “overwhelming, enormous”.
Mr Denison said a mixed DNA profile of at least five contributors was found on the wadding, and the likelihood of it being “from Michael Dixon and four others unknown rather than five unknown people is at least one in a billion”.
And he said suggestions Dixon’s DNA could have got onto the wadding when it was on the carpet at Tup Tup, in PC Denyer’s possession or on his desk at the police station were “pie in the sky”.
He also reminded the jury that Sayers’ barrister had cross-examined several police officers about mistakes in documents relating to PD/1.
“Of course the defence for Mr Sayers want to make any suggestion they can that the police have behaved badly in this case, that they have fitted him up.
“But when you look at these documents please bear this in mind - is it really being suggested by Mr Sayers that from the moment this shooting took place, as early as June 6 or 7, long before any evidence had been obtained, that Northumbria Police were setting about fitting him up?
“That DC Jenkins got a date wrong on a spreadsheet because she was fitting him up? It’s ridiculous, we suggest.”
Mr Denison also reminded the jurors of Operation Tobago, a police investigation in August 2015 which led to Michael Dixon pleading guilty to a firearms offence.
Mr Denison says the basis on which Dixon was sentenced in Operation Tobago was that “he was recruited to be the gunman, to ride the high-powered motorbike with the gun and carry out the shooting”.
Mr Denison said: “All the evidence in that case was that he was a hired gunman.
“That is important because it proves he was capable of carrying out a shooting using a gun and high-powered motorbike.
“It proves he was willing to carry out a shooting using a sawn-off shotgun and a highpowered motorbike.
“And it proves he was willing to do it in furtherance of someone else’s cause.”
And on the alleged false confession by convicted killer Michael McDougall, Mr Denison said the evidence McDougall was lying was “overwhelming”.
The jury were reminded of a transcript of a prison visit in October 19.
Mr Denison said: “This is the conversation where he gives a graphic account to his friends of how he killed poor Tipu Sultan, something he was later to deny in court.
“One of his friends tells him ‘got told Micky’s supposed to have done the bouncer in Newcastle’ and he replies ‘not me.’”
Sayers, 54, and Dixon, 50, are accused of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to possess a firearm.
Sturman, 26, is accused of assisting an offender.
Sayers and McDougall, 50, are also charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
The defendants deny all of the charges.