ROSS: ACCUSED PRISON ASSASSIN HAD BULLET PROOF VEST

An alleged assassin who dressed as a lawyer to shoot dead a prison visitor was linked to the killing by a bullet proof vest covered in tiny particles of gunshot residue, the Old Bailey heard today (Thurs).

Rupert Ross, 30, is said to have gunned down former friend 20 year-old Darcy Austin-Bruce outside HMP Wandsworth after a tip-off from an inmate.

Within days of the shooting, on May 1 2009, Ross was arrested by detectives who found two pieces of body armour at his mother’s address in Vera Road, Fulham, west London.

A bulky green vest was covered in firearms discharge residue, which matched the chemical composition of the bullets used to kill Mr Austin-Bruce.

Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting, told jurors: ‘The ballistic expert who examined the vest has indicated that this strongly suggests the vest had recently been worn when a gun had been fired or otherwise the vest had come in to contact in some other way with a gun which had recently been fired.’

The murder weapon was likely to have been a revolver made by either Smith and Wesson, Taurus or Ruger, but the court has heard the gun has never been found.

Ross is said to have fled from the south London prison on the back of a stolen black moped ridden by Leon De St Aubin, 34.

Mr Austin-Bruce died within minutes of being hit by five bullets as he walked towards the main entrance of the prison from the visitors’ centre at 2.30pm.

Nursing staff from the jail rushed to his aid, but found the fatally-injured man already without a pulse.

They attempted resuscitation and were joined by an ambulance crew and a doctor but nothing could be done to save Mr Austin-Bruce who was declared dead at the scene.

A post mortem found he had been shot three times in the back, once in the abdomen and once in the neck.

Investigators found two bullets at the scene, including one underneath his body, and a pathologist removed a further three from his wounds.

Mr Aylett, continuing his opening address to the jury for a second day, said there was no CCTV footage of the incident either from cameras at the nearby County Arms pub or the prison itself.

But the stolen 58-plate moped had been captured fleeing north across Wandsworth Bridge moments after the shooting.

Witnesses had seen the scooter pull in to the pub car park shortly before 2.30pm.

One man, Mark Gardener, who was on his way to a nearby shop, described the rider and passenger as wearing ‘dark suits and full face crash helmets with the visas down’, jurors were told.

‘Both of them kept their crash helmets on and both were looking around them,’ said the prosecutor.

‘He then saw one of the men start walking up Alma Terrace towards the prison and he still had a crash helmet on his head.’

A second witness, who was on the phone to a friend at the time, also saw the two men and was immediately suspicious.

Mr Aylett added: ‘She couldn’t see anything of their faces and the two of them were covered fro head to foot without any skin exposed.’

Ross is said to have approached Mr Austin-Bruce, still wearing a red crash helmet and opened fire.

The prosecution allege he was dressed ‘like a lawyer making a legal visit to a client inside the prison’.

The moped rider was seen waiting in the car park of the pub, still wearing his black helmet.

Witnesses saw him jump back on the scooter as the shots rang out and when he was rejoined by the gunman the pair sped off across the pavement and out in to Trinity Road, a main road leading north towards the River Thames.

A traffic camera mounted on the Wandsworth Bridge captured the moped crossing the river, but it was not captured further north in the Kings Road.

Mr Aylett said this was consistent with the moped heading off towards Rosebury Road, Fulham, the home address of third defendant Khori Hines, 34.

Jurors heard he was the first suspect to use his mobile phone after the shooting, some two hours after he had last made a call or sent a text.

It is alleged he was the conduit with the killers’ inside man Casper Smith, 30, who was on remand on the same wing at Wandsworth as the man Mr Austin-Bruce was due to visit and tipped them off about the time of his attendance.

Mr Aylett has said the shooting was ‘in the most literal sense an inside job’ as it had been planned from within the walls of the prison.

It is alleged Smith used a mobile phone, which had been smuggled in to him, to contact his cousin Hines.

The court has heard Ross and Mr Austin-Bruce had been involved in the supply of drugs together but the relationship soured.

Prosecutors claim he and De St Aubin took revenge after being shot at by Mr Austin-Bruce and an associate.

De Saint Aubin, of (26) De Palma Court, Racton Road, Fulham, west London; Hines, of (29b) Rosebury Road, Fulham; Ross, of [11] Salisbury Pavement, Dawes Road, Fulham; and Smith, of no fixed address; deny murder.

The trial continues.