'Kidnap' claim of man in dock for murder of grandmother

ACCUSED SAYS HE WAS WARNED HE WOULD BE 'PUT IN THE GROUND'

- By ADAM EVERETT

A MAN accused of murder after a grandmother was shot dead in her own home has told a jury that he was kidnapped by his co-defendant's mum and warned that he'd be “put in the ground”.

Mother-of-six and grandmother-of-five Jackie Rutter died, aged 53, after being shot in the chest on the doorstep of her own home on Meadowbrook Road in Moreton, Wirral.

Four men - Simon Allen, James Byrne, Barrie Glynn and David Harrison - are currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of her murder. A fifth defendant, Anna McGinn, is charged with assisting an offender in connection with the fatal shooting.

The attack was apparently motivated by a “robbery” in which Ms Rutter’s sons, Peter and Steven, reportedly stole a mobile phone, which Byrne and another man, Preston Connolly, had been using to conduct their drug dealing business.

These two men were then said to have carried out the shooting the following day as Glynn acted as their getaway driver.

Allen, meanwhile, torched the stolen car used by killers, having seemingly performed reconnaissance missions on key locations earlier the same evening, with Harrison’s home allegedly used as a base of operations on the night.

Connolly fled the country for Turkey in the aftermath of the incident and will not present in the dock alongside his then girlfriend, McGinn, who drove both him and Byrne home in the aftermath.

Jurors continued to hear evidence from Allen for a third day today, Monday.

He previously reported that Byrne had told him in the aftermath of the shooting that he had “just put two in the chest” and instructed him to set fire to the car that had been used during the incident.

When asked whether he and his co-defendant had discussed the matter in the aftermath, Allen recalled that he had been told to “stop panicking” and was “constantly reminded” to “keep his gob shut”.