Hell's Angel executed in cold-blooded military operation, murder trial told

Published on Monday 6 October 2008 21:44

A HELL'S Angel was shot dead as he rode along a motorway at 90mph after being targeted for "execution" by members of a rival biker gang, a murder trial was told yesterday.

Gerry Tobin died in a split-second when he was struck by one of two rounds fired at him on the M40 from a car which was tailing him.

Prosecutor Timothy Raggatt, QC, opening the case against six men who deny murder, told Birmingham Crown Court that the 35-year-old's killing by members of a group known as the Outlaws was calculated "down to the finest detail" and had been planned almost like a military operation.

Mr Raggatt said Mr Tobin, a "fully patched" and senior Hell's Angel in a London-based chapter of the grouping, was a law-abiding citizen.

Addressing the motive for the crime, Mr Raggatt told the jury: "This wasn't a case of a man being killed for any personal motive or any personal reason.

"This was a man who was targeted not because of who he was, but because of what he was. In one sense, Gerry Tobin was a random victim."

The QC told jurors that Mr Tobin, from Mottingham, south-east London, was a complete stranger to each and every one of the men in the dock.

"There is not a scrap of evidence that any of them had ever met him," Mr Raggatt added. "That said, of course, he was undoubtedly targeted, selected and, some would say, executed."

Mr Tobin, a mechanic, whose former girlfriend, Rebecca Smith, was in court for the start of the trial yesterday, was shot near Warwick Services on 12 August last year from a car which was later found burnt out.

Giving jurors what he described as a thumbnail sketch of the events surrounding the shooting, Mr Raggatt went on: "The incident was a thoroughly ruthless one, executed with great skill and precision, great timing… and was the product of a great deal of planning.

"It was a thoroughly carefully aimed shot delivered by someone in a vehicle. It was a moving vehicle travelling at something like 85-90mph, approaching carefully from behind."

The jury of six men and six women was told that Mr Tobin was travelling in convoy with two other motorcycles after visiting the annual Bulldog Bash, a Hell's Angels music festival, at Long Marston, Warwickshire.

The bullet which killed him was probably fired from a revolver, while a second handgun was also used to aim a shot at his rear wheel, Mr Raggatt alleged.

Describing the killing as a conspiracy which was put into effect with determined efficiency, Mr Raggatt continued: "There were contingencies and alternatives that had been planned for. It was in that sense almost a military-style operation and had at its heart the plain intention to kill."

The car from which the fatal shot was fired was burnt out on the same day, rendering it forensically useless.

Simon Turner, 41, from Nuneaton, and Malcolm Bull, 53, from Milton Keynes, are on trial alongside four men from Coventry – Karl Garside, 45, his brother Dane Garside, 42, Dean Taylor, 47, and 46-year-old Ian Cameron.

The exact addresses of the defendants, who all deny murder and possessing two shotguns, cannot be published for legal reasons.

Turner and Dane Garside also deny a further charge of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

A seventh defendant, 44-year-old Sean Creighton, from Coventry, pleaded guilty to murder and both firearms charges last week and will be sentenced at the conclusion of the six-week murder trial.

The Crown alleges that the six defendants on trial and Creighton constituted the entire membership of the South Warwickshire chapter of the Outlaws, which had a "club house" at a motorcycle supply shop in Coventry.

Bull was, by his own admission, the treasurer of the chapter, collecting subscriptions from other members of the "very, very close-knit" group.

"The evidence may show us that Long Marston is in a part of the country that the Outlaws regard as theirs… part of their patch," Mr Raggatt said.

The case continues.