Accused 'didn't know Jackie would be shot'

CAR DRIVER: I WAS DECEIVED

- By ADAM EVERETT

A MAN accused of murder after a grandmother was shot dead in her own home says he was "deceived" into acting as the getaway driver and has told a court he "didn't like what had gone on

Mum-of-six and grandma-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 in October 2022.

Four men, Simon Allen, James Byrne, Barrie Glynn and David Harrison, are 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 reportedly stole a mobile phone which Byrne and another man, Preston Connolly, had been using to conduct their drug dealing business. They 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 the 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 in question.

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

Glynn gave evidence to the jury yesterday. He accepts having been the driver of the car at the time that Ms Rutter was shot but denies that he had any prior knowledge of what was to happen.

His counsel Gordon Cole KC questioned him over events during the day after the shooting, when Glynn recalled that he had taken his mum shopping. Asked about phone contact between himself, Harrison and Allen that afternoon, he told the court: "I do know I was trying to put distance between myself and the group at that time.