Mad Dog death plot accused: Can your dad help me get a gun?
COURT TOLD HOW CELTS STAR STOKES ACCOSTED IN PUB...
THE man accused of plotting to kill Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair asked Celtic star Anthony Stokes for help getting guns, a court has heard.
Antoin Duffy approached striker Stokes in the Brazen Head pub to ask if his father could help him get his hands on a supply of firearms, it was claimed yesterday.
The High Court in Glasgow heard regulars of the
pub, which is popular with Celtic fans, reacted with fury to the request.
The revelations came in a recorded conversation in which Duffy told his girlfriend Stacey McAllister he had walked up to Stokes and asked him to get his father to speak to someone about guns.
Duffy’s home in Old Castle Road, Glasgow, was bugged by police from August to October, 2013. He was also followed and on September 1, he went to the Brazen Head in the city.
In a tape played to the jury, Duffy said on his return from the pub: “I wanted to go and talk to Anthony Stokes and see if his dad could get a message to Donzo about these f***ing weapons.
“I seen Anthony Stokes tonight and I says, ‘Listen, I need to talk to your dad’, and then everybody started jumping in going, ‘Blah, blah, blah’, know what I mean?
“They’re singing songs and all this carry on, saying, ‘You can’t do this’.
“I said, ‘ Leave me alone’. Not one of them has ever had to go on an operation where they got shot.”
Detective Constable Ross Arnott was involved in the surveillance operation.
Derek Ogg QC, defending, asked him: “We heard how Mr Duffy approached Anthony Stokes the Celtic footballer and was angry when there was a big reaction.
“He approached Anthony Stokes to ask if he could speak to his dad to speak to somebody else about guns and everyone seemed to take exception to this?” Arnott replied: “Yes.”
Ogg said: “Throughout the tapes, we hear Mr Duffy refer to his crazy behaviour and taking Tramadol?” Arnott again replied: “That’s correct.”
Police recorded 1300 hours of covert tapes during Operation Hairsplitter, the court heard.
Ogg revealed that initially, all the excerpts from the tapes given to defence teams excluded any reference to Duffy’s addiction to Tramadol.
He asked Arnott: “Originally, the security services did not wish to release to us any recordings with references to Tramadol and my client’s addiction to it. Why was this?”
Arnott replied: “The decision was made by senior officers that the information originally released was sufficient for disclosure purposes.”
The jury heard that the tapes finally released had numerous references to Duffy being sick due to Tramodol.
Duffy, 39 – known as Anton – Martin Hughes, 36, Paul Sands, 31, and John Gorman, 58, deny conspiring to murder Adair and Sam McCrory, once high-profile loyalist paramilitaries.
Duffy and Gorman also deny being part of a plan to murder Barlinnie prison governor Derek McGill with a car bomb.
Craig Convery, 37, Gary Convery, 34, and Gordon Brown, 29, deny organised crime charges. The trial, before judge Lady Scott, continues.