‘HARD YARDS’ BEHIND COPS’ OPERATION ETON
into, at the end of 2017, but they were unable to establish exactly what triggered the shootings.
By February 14, police were ready to make arrests and armed offices swooped at a home on Wingrove Avenue, in Fenham.
During the raid, Appleby and Jamie Moran were arrested while attempting to flee the address.
“We preserved that address as a crime scene and conducted a search,” said Det Chief Insp Woods.
“There were various items seized and a quantity of cash was seized. There was a loose floorboard, and when they raised the floorboard they saw a bag, which was found to contain another bag with ammunition inside of it.
“Under the pellets was a firearm.”
Michael Conroy’s DNA was found on bags containing ammunition.
And detectives were able to prove the recovered firearm was used in the shooting in Benwell.
“It was sent for testing and it came back as the gun used in the third shooting,” said Det Chief Insp Woods.
Jurors were told other items found included a bag in the kitchen cupboard containing £3,000 in cash and a further £2,027 under a sofa cushion.
Two balaclavas were found in drawers in the living room and cannabis and scales were discovered in the kitchen. Mobile phone information, ANPR data and witness testimony later put Moran, Wilson and Ree in Brunswick in the minutes before that shooting took place.
Det Chief Insp Woods added: “This is a circumstantial case because you have got lots of pieces of evidence coming together like a jigsaw.”
Fast forward to June 2018 and detectives made a further breakthrough in the case when a sawn-off shotgun, wrapped in a bag, was found hidden in a hedge near to Tebay Drive in Denton Burn.
The team decided that, rather than just seize the weapon, they would take the unusual step of swapping it for a fake gun, which had been covered in a “smart spray” that would then transfer onto those who collected it. Officers then carried out covert surveillance on the weapon and observed Steven Melvin turn up four days later to collect the package. He was observed meeting with brothers Paul and Steve Scott, who transferred the weapon to a van before later moving it to the home of a fourth man, Keith Ridley.
It was then that police swooped and all four men were arrested on suspicion of firearms offences linked to the sawn-off shotgun.
Det Chief Insp Woods explained: “We decided rather than seize the gun we would swap it for a fake gun covered in ‘smart gel,’ which then transfers on to people that come into contact with it.
“If you put it under an ultra violet scanner it shows up, which we can then use as evidence.
“We conducted surveillance and observed Melvin turning up four days later to to collect the package. “He is then on CCTV meeting with Paul Scott and Steven Scott.
“It is not a tactic that we use very often, but by the very nature that firearms incidents are rare, that stands to reason.
“We could have just recovered the gun and done all the forensic work on it, but we were thinking whoever has hidden this here is going to come back for it.
“It was all about trying to maximise the evidential opportunities.”
The gun that recovered was a 12-gauge shotgun – the type believed to have been used in the Cowgate attack.
Melvin, Paul Scott and Steven Scott all admitted conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
Melvin, 34, of Greenhills, Killingworth, was jailed for seven years and two months. Paul Scott, 31, of Whitbeck Road, Newcastle, was jailed for eight years and a month and Steven Scott, 34, of Bedburn Road, Newbiggin Hall, was jailed for seven years and two months.
Ridley, 39, of St Marks Court, Westerhope, admitted a lesser charge of possession of an imitation firearm, relating to the dummy weapon planted by police. He was jailed for nine months.
The four were all sentenced in November, but the court placed reporting restrictions on the case until the conclusion of the latest trial.
Det Chief Insp Woods said the case had been a complex but rewarding one.
“It has been one of the more tricky investigations,” he explained.
“There’s a lot of hard yards the detectives have had to go to to get to this point.
“There’s lots of bits of evidence for lots of different people and that makes it more challenging, but also more rewarding.”