Six accused of plotting city shooting await jury’s verdict
COURT TOLD HOW HOMES HAD BEEN SHOT AT IN ALLEGED FEUD
A JURY has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of six men accused of firearms offences following two shootings at homes in Newcastle.
Prosecutors allege the men conspired to open fire on a house in Brunswick while three of them are also accused of plotting a shooting at the windows of a property in Benwell.
Michael Conroy, Darren Appleby, Jamie Moran, Kenneth Moran, Bailey Wilson and Sean Ree deny a series of firearms offences, including conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and the lesser alternative of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
The jury at Newcastle Crown Court began its deliberations around lunchtime on Wednesday after Judge Simon Batiste finished summing up the evidence in the case.
It is alleged that all six defendants plotted to shoot at a house on Drysdale Court, Brunswick, on January 4 last year after an alleged feud with another group escalated.
Jurors heard that a window of a house next door to where rival Paul Scott was staying had its window shot through while a woman who lives there was three feet from the window doing some knitting.
The home of Appleby in Cowgate is then said to have been shot at on January 8 and two hours later, in what prosecutors suggest was an act of revenge or retaliation, Conroy, Appleby and Jamie Moran are alleged to have conspired to shoot at a house on Oakfield Gardens, Benwell.
Police raided a house on Wingrove Avenue, Fenham, on February 14, and found a cache of ammunition and a loaded pump-action rifle hidden under floorboards.
Prosecutors allege Appleby had rented the property as a safe house.
Michael Conroy, 36, of Heathfield Crescent, Cowgate, Newcastle, Darren Appleby, 23, of Deepdale Crescent, Cowgate, Jamie Moran, 28, of Whickham View, Newcastle, Kenneth Moran, 27, of Caroline Cottages, Slatyford, Newcastle, Sean Ree, 25, of Coach Road, Wallsend, and Bailey Wilson, 21, of Cartmell Green, Slatyford, all deny conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life in relation to the Brunswick shooting.
Ree has pleaded guilty to the lesser alternative of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, which the others deny.
Appleby, Conroy and Jamie Moran deny conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life in relation to the Benwell shooting and they deny the alternative of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
Conroy also denies possessing ammunition, namely a .22 bullet, without a certificate.
Appleby and Jamie Moran deny possessing a firearm without a certificate, namely a pump-action rifle, and possessing ammunition without a certificate, namely .22 bullets.
Ree denies criminal damage in relation to the alleged attack on Cafe West on October 13.