VALENTINE:HITMAN SHOT WRONG MAN IN ASSASSINATION BY THE SEA
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A murder victim was gunned down on his own doorstep in a quiet seaside village by mistake, a court heard today (Thurs).
John Ward, 22, was shot in the throat by hitman Martin Valentine, 42, who had been recruited to kill his friend Stewart Higgins.
Mr Higgins was staying at Mr Ward’s home in Point Clear Road, St Osyth, Essex.
Valentine and a group of associates known as ‘The Firm’ had been hired to kill Mr Higgins after he angered the ex-girlfriend of a gangland boss, it is claimed.
The killer blasted a sawn-off shot gun through door of the house thinking Higgins was standing behind it but hit Mr Ward.
Prosecutor John Dodd, QC, said: ‘Mr Ward was not the intended target of the gang of men who went to that house that evening.
‘Higgins happened to be staying with the Ward family at the time.
‘The group that went to this house went to search out Higgins because it seems that earlier that same say Higgins was involved in an incident that occurred at the home of the former partner of a man who instigated this business.
‘The man decided that Higgins had to be punished for that what he done that day, and so he set about assembling a team described at some stage as ‘The Firm’ with the intention, at the very least, of causing Higgins harm or intending to kill him.
‘For why else take a sawn-off shotgun?’
The Old Bailey heard how Valentine went to Mr Ward’s home in the evening of March 21 with club promoter Steven Walker, 28, and unemployed Vishnu Bhaskaran, 27.
They knocked on his door and asked to speak to Higgins.
When Mr Ward refused to let them speak to Higgins and closed the door, Valentine shot through it, jurors heard.
Mr Dodd added: ‘It was Mr Ward who had the misfortune to be standing close to Higgins when Valentine fired the sawn-off shot gun and it was Ward not Higgins who died that evening.’
Valentine, Walker and Bhaskaran deny murder.
The court heard how former ‘Firm’ member Martin Brown, who drove the three to the house, will give evidence against his former friends.
Chef Brown, of Windmill Road, Bradfield, Essex, has admitted assisting an offender. The 25-year-old is on bail and will be sentenced at the end of the trial
The jury were told by judge David Paget QC they would be protected during the trial, and transported to and from the court at the beginning and end of each day.
They were identified only by number, not name, to avoid identification.
Valentine, 42, of Viola Close, South Ockendon, Essex, Bhaskaran, 27, of (130) Mill Road, Colchester, Essex, and Walker, of (8) Fernwood Avenue, Holland-on-Sea, Essex, all deny murder.
The trial continues
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