ambush on motorway outlined at trial
Rival gang of bikers lay in wait to execute Hell’s Angel, jury told
Published:
The killers of a Hell’s Angel biker waited in a lay-by near a motorway junction to select him as a target for execution, a court heard yesterday.
Birmingham Crown Court was also told that Gerry Tobin was fired at by two gunmen from the rival Outlaws gang on the M40 after pulling into the middle lane to allow their speeding car to pass him.
Continuing his opening address to a jury trying six men accused of murder, prosecutor Timothy Raggatt QC said Mr Tobin was first spotted by his killers on the A46 near Stratford-upon-Avon.
After showing the jury CCTV images of a Rover saloon alleged to have been used in the shooting, he told the court: “The car that ultimately was to contain those who directly killed Mr Tobin in effect lay in wait in a lay-by for a suitable target.”
The Rover, containing three men, then followed three motorcycles, led by Mr Tobin, on to the M40 near Warwick, Mr Raggatt said.
The jury saw a computer-generated reconstruction of the shooting, which showed the Rover passing two of the bikes in the convoy before pulling alongside Mr Tobin.
Mr Raggatt told the jury: “The car closed up on Mr Tobin and there were two shots . . . there were clearly two gunmen.”
One of the shots hit Mr Tobin, from Mottingham, south-east London, in the neck and passed through his spine into his skull.
The 35-year-old, who was returning home from the annual Bulldog Bash festival at Long Marston, Warwickshire, then fell from his motorcycle.
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 Ian Cameron, 46. Turner and Dane Garside also deny possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.
A seventh man, 44-year-old Sean Creighton, from Coventry, pleaded guilty to murder and both firearms charges and will be sentenced at the conclusion of the trial.
The hearing continues.
