Richard Deakin murder trial is told of gunman's phone use
The gunman who murdered a Staffordshire father-of-two had a mobile phone that he used 'almost exclusively' to contact a man accused of organising the shooting, a court had heard.
In the weeks before and after Richard Deakin's death, gunman David Harrison made and received calls or texts to John Anslow on 163 occasions out of the 180 times he used the phone.
Prosecutors claim 33-year-old Anslow organised the murder, which happened in July 2010.
Mr Deakin, aged 27, was shot as he lay in bed at his home in Meadway Street, Chasetown.
Harrison, who was pictured on CCTV entering the back garden of the family home while wearing a balaclava and blue latex gloves, killed Mr Deakin with a sawn-off shotgun.
Darryl Dickens was the getaway driver and both he and Harrison have been convicted of Mr Deakin's murder. At Woolwich Crown Court, jurors heard that £26,000 was found at Bilston man Harrison's other address in Folkestone.
The court was told that he and Anslow, from Tipton, spoke regularly on the phone in the lead-up to Mr Deakin's death, including on days where Harrison went to Chasetown on reconnaissance trips to the murder scene.
Naomi Gayle, an analyst at Staffordshire Police from 2003 to 2013, was assigned to the murder investigation.
Mr Michael Burrows QC, prosecuting, asked her about Harrison's phone use between May 1 and July 27 in 2010. She said: "The main phone was to contact his wife, family and other associates. The second phone is the phone he primarily used to contact John Anslow."
Mr Burrows said of the 180 calls and messages in total on the second phone, 162 were to a phone believed to have been used by Anslow, and another to a separate Anslow phone.
Mr Michael Bromley Martin QC, defending Anslow, said the pair regularly contacted each other on separate phones after the murder as well, stretching to September and October that year. He said: "David Harrison was in the habit at any particular time to almost exclusively call a particular number, belonging to John Anslow. That's what he primarily used that phone for, yes?" Miss Gayle replied: "That's what he primarily used that phone for, yes."
Detective Chief Inspector Darren Harding, of Staffordshire Police, led the murder investigation and said phones had been widely analysed.
He added: "There were over 17,000 numbers of inquiry. Substantial telecoms work was carried out."
Mr Deakin, a Walsall skip hire boss, was killed just minutes after his partner Megan left their Chasetown home with their two children. Anslow denies murder. The trial continues.
