An ‘unhappy loner’ tried to hire a hitman to kill

An ‘unhappy loner’ tried to hire a hitman to kill a fellow college student she had become obsessed with, the Old Bailey heard today.

(Mon)

Donna Bailey, 24, and her boyfriend Nigel Henry, 42, allegedly made notes of how they would kidnap and restrain their intended victim, 30-year-old Anna Augustin.

But the pair’s plan failed when the man they attempted to hire to kill Ms Augustin went to the police, it is claimed.

An undercover detective then recorded a conversation as the couple chatted about the murder conspiracy, jurors heard.

Officers later found handcuffs, syringes filled with cleaning fluid, binoculars, thick chains, a crow bar, a machete and a baseball bat at their south London flat.

Edward Brown, prosecuting, told the jury: ‘There was born a plan, out of all proportion you may think in due course, hatched by the defendants to kill Ms Augustin.

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Ms Augustin had been met Bailey while at both attended college in Clapham Old Town.

Mr Brown said: ‘Ms Bailey appeared to Anna Augustin to be something of a loner, but also someone who was unhappy as such.

‘Donna Bailey became intent on improving her social life and wanted Ms Augustin to help her.

‘Anna was someone to aspire to as far as she was concerned.

‘But as Ms Augustin came to know the defendant, it would appear to her that she would lie and exaggerate her personal life, at one stage even denying the existence of her boyfriend.

‘Ms Bailey claimed to have become pregnant and then lost the child.

‘That imitated exactly what had in fact happened to Ms Augustin.

‘Not surprisingly this was particularly upsetting.

‘Ms Augustin had become very ill during her own pregnancy and eventually lost the child.

‘It was made no better by this defendant somehow, in her view, wishing to mirror the actions and events that took place with Anna Augustin.

‘Donna Bailey had lost something of a sense of proportion.

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Sometime later, Bailey told Ms Augustin that she was pregnant again, the court heard.

Ms Augustin congratulated the man who she believed was the child’s father.

But she did not realise that Bailey was also having a relationship with Henry.

Ms Augustin then found out that the man knew nothing about the child, said Mr Brown.

He added: ‘Ms Augustin was to speak to Donna Bailey and tell her in simple but direct terms that she should sort herself out.

‘The result was a very considerable row between the two.

‘It ended with Ms Augustin saying that she wished to have nothing more to do with Donna Bailey.

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An angry Bailey then hatched a plan with Henry to kill Ms Augustin, jurors heard.

On March 23 this year, the couple met a man called Carlton Robinson – also known as Delroy Edwards – at a pub.

The couple then allegedly tried to hire him to carry out the killing.

Mr Robinson asked for pnds stlg 5,000 to murder Ms Augustin, but then went straight to the police, it is alleged.

A week later on March 31, Mr Robinson went with an undercover police officer to Bailey and Henry’s home in Deptford to discuss the plan, jurors heard.

Their conversation was secretly recorded, and that night their flat was raided.

Jurors heard that Henry had written a note that read:
‘Anna Augustin.

Five foot one inch, female, black, drives a Rover 216.

Is very loud so go for the mouth first.

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Another note allegedly read: ‘Take target to her own car.

‘Bind HF.

Gag.

Priority is target.

Has loud mouth.

Poison outside London.

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The couple were arrested on the day of the police raid, the jury heard.

Bailey denied any knowledge of the notes allegedly written by Henry.

Mr Brown said: ‘She said that she had been threatened by Ms Augustin and all this – the equipment and the documents and so on – was possibly a set-up by her, Anna Augustin.

‘She said she had never seen the crow bar, chains and machete before and that if they had been there she would have seen them.

‘The handcuffs were for sexual pleasures, she said.

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Henry told police he had no intention of harming Ms Augustin.

But Henry said he went along with his girlfriend to placate her, jurors heard.

Mr Brown said: ‘He claimed that his girlfriend was unstable and he didn’t take anything she said seriously.

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Bailey and Henry, both of (7) Skua Court, Dorking Close, Deptford, southeast London, both deny one count of soliciting to murder and one of conspiracy to murder.

The trial continues.

ends