Raid 'was like The Sweeney'
Witnesses have spoken of the moments they saw three men rush from a car towards a post office where a sub-postmaster's son was shot dead.
Witnesses have spoken of the moments they saw three men rush from a car towards a post office where a sub-postmaster's son was shot dead.
Three motorists who drove past Fairfield General Stores near Stourbridge on the day Craig Hodson-Walker was shot told a jury how they saw a silver Volkswagen car pulled up on the pavement before three men ran out.
One witness, Stephen Deeley, a fleet manager, told Birmingham Crown Court yesterday he was so suspicious of what was happening he stopped his car to take photographs of the registration plate on his mobile phone before he heard what sounded like a gunshot.
He said he was driving to work through Fairfield when he saw a silver Volkswagen Golf pull out quickly a couple of cars ahead of him before driving down the road at high speed and then pulling up half on the pavement outside the post office.
He said it was like "an episode of the Sweeney" and the doors "flew open."
"The two rear doors and front passenger doors opened and I saw people get out and rush in the direction of the stores," he said.
"Three people got out, one from each door. I pulled over and reversed back up the road. My driver's window was down and I thought it would be useful to record a photograph of the car so I could record the registration, so at that point I activated the camera on my phone.
"The driver of the Golf starting beeping the horn, I presume to warn whoever had gone inside the post office that it was time to get out. From inside the shop I heard one gunshot and some shouting and screaming.
"Three people came out of the shop and got into the Golf. They were coming out of the post office at great haste.
They seemed to have their hands tucked around their fronts or in their pockets rather than along their sides. They got into the vehicle, into the Golf. At that point they sped off in the direction of Bromsgrove at quite a speed."
Mr Deeley said he then went inside the store where he saw a lot of the stock on the floor and a smashed till and saw Craig lying on the floor with his father alongside him. Another witness, Christopher Williams, was also driving past and said he saw three men get out of a silver VW Golf pulled up outside the post office and saw one carrying what appeared to be a long, black object. He said he called 999 and went into the store after the VW Golf had left.
Anselm Ribera, of Topfield House, Druids Heath, Birmingham; Adrian Snape, of Camelot Way, Small Heath, Birmingham; Christopher Morrissey, of Elmay Road, Sheldon, Birmingham; and his brother Declan Morrissey, of Shirley Park Road, Solihull, deny murder. They also deny the attempted murder of Craig's father Ken Hodson-Walker, who was shot in the leg, and another charge of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.
