Police are ‘out to get Sayers’
BARRISTER TELLS JURY MOTIVE FOR SHOOTING IS ‘WEAK’
JOHN Henry Sayers is “a 54-year-old man who the police won’t leave alone”, the jury in the Tup Tup shooting trial has heard.
As he made his closing speech, Sayers’ barrister told jurors that “people change as they get older” and claimed there were “little hints” that Sayers “could be right” in his belief police were “out to get him”.
The 54-year-old is on trial accused of sending friend Michael Dixon to shoot at the club in “revenge” for his son being thrown out and punched by door staff two weeks earlier.
The prosecution case is that he organised the shooting to “reinforce the message - ‘don’t mess with the Sayers.’”
But his lawyer Michael Holland QC dismissed the allegation as “nonsensical” and said “family reputation was not a basis for shooting people”.
He said: “They say Mr Sayers had a motive. The rest of their case is that he’s associated with Michael Dixon and made a couple of calls to him around the relevant time. And that is it.”
Jurors were told he was convicted of a robbery in 1990 but claimed it was on “perjured evidence”.
Mr Holland said Sayers was sentenced in 2008 for tax evasion but complained “police used a participating informant” and that he was “led into it” by the police informant.
And he talked about “the extraordinary event” in 2010 “when a judge stopped the prosecution on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct”.
Mr Holland said that Sayers then sued for wrongful prosecution.
“He’s got a senior lawyer sacked, he’s embarrassed Northumbria Police, even though the judge didn’t criticise them. He’s becoming a real thorn in the side isn’t he?”
He added: “There’s nothing sinister going on there at all, just as there’s nothing sinister going on with John Henry Sayers - but is there a difference? John is the one who is suing the CPS and the one who is on Panorama criticising the police.”
Mr Holland told jurors that the shooter “has all the hallmarks of wanting no-one to know who he is” and said the motive evidence against Sayers was “weak”.
He told the court: “In anybody’s case, to shoot at a doorman after being chucked out of a nightclub is a massive overreaction.”
He reminded jurors of Tup Tup director James Jukes’ evidence, in which he said in a police interview that the idea of the shooting being “Sayers’ retaliation” sounded like “fantasy land”.
He added former head doorman Grant Stevens said he “didn’t believe for one second it was the Sayers” and was “surprised” at the arrests.
Mr Holland said: “This is the prosecution’s star witness trampling all over the prosecution case.”
In conclusion, he told jurors: “Mr Sayers tells you he’s a 54-year-old man and the police won’t leave him alone. People do change as they get older, don’t they?”
He also added: “Mr Sayers’ belief that the police are out to get him is a sincerely held one, and there are little hints in this case that he might be right.”
Sayers and Dixon, 50, are accused of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to possess a firearm.
Russell 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 charges. The trial continues.