Jurors ready to consider Tup Tup shooting
JURORS in the case of four men charged in connection with a driveby shooting outside a Newcastle club are expected to retire to consider their verdicts today.
Prosecutors claim John Henry Sayers ordered the shooting at Tup Tup Palace before putting a convicted murderer up to confess to the crime himself.
The 54-year-old is accused of sending alleged gunman Michael Dixon to “reinforce the message – don’t mess with the Sayers” after his son had been thrown out of the club two weeks earlier.
Sayers and Dixon, 50, have gone on trial accused of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to possess a firearm.
Former doorman Russell Sturman, 26, is also on trial for allegedly assisting an offender by “providing important information to Sayers before the shooting, knowing what his reputation was and what the consequence of providing that information would be – serious violence”.
Sayers and a fourth defendant, Michael McDougall, are also jointly charged with doing acts tending to pervert the course of justice.
Prosecutors claim that convicted killer McDougall told “a pack of lies” by claiming he was behind the shooting and that he was put up to it by Sayers after the two met in prison.
The four men deny the charges and are standing trial at the Old Bailey in London. Yesterday, Judge Mark Lucraft QC continued summing up the case for the jurors.
He reminded them of the evidence of a prison officer who monitored the exercise yard in HMP Wakefield on July 13 2017 and saw Sayers and McDougall associating in the yard. The judge said: “She said there was a book where Sayers’ movements were recorded by the prison and staff were encouraged to submit reports on associations such as the one she had seen with McDougall. “She noted that both were from the North East and agreed it wasn’t unusual for people from the same geographical area to associate.” Judge Lucraft also reminded jurors of transcripts of police interviews with McDougall. “The first is where Mr McDougall says he is responsible for carrying out the shooting and sets out the
This document is critical in the case against Michael Dixon and you will want to look at it with some care Judge Mark Lucraft QC
background to what he had done and why.
“At the end of the third transcript he is told he is being arrested for perverting the course of justice.”
He also summed up evidence around “exhibit PD/1” – a piece of shotgun cartridge wadding found at the scene which prosecutors say has evidence linking it to Dixon.
The judge said: “This document is critical in the case against Michael Dixon and you will want to look at it with some care.”
Doorman Matthew McCauley was riddled with pellets in his arm, chest, shoulder and back after the shooting on June 6, 2015, and jurors were told that the injuries “could have been fatal” if the shot had hit his heart or neck.
The defendants deny all the charges against them.
The trial continues.
JUDGE SUMMED UP FACTS OF CASE FOR JURY