Jury hears how moped gunman did 'circuits' past a Nottingham bar before opening fire

A moped gunman did circuits past a Nottingham bar and nearby streets before he pulled up and opened fire, a jury has heard.

The rider was captured on CCTV going round and round, and sometimes stopping and looking at the front of The Bowery Club on Fletcher Gate.

The jury has been told about two alleged murder conspiracies involving two 'targeted shootings' one month apart at the end of last year.

One was outside city bar Das Kino, and another at a family home.

John Lloyd-Jones, prosecuting, told the Nottingham Crown Court jury how the moped rider in the second shooting, on November 3, made "three circuits past the bar and the nearby streets".

The shooter travelled up Fletcher Gate again and on this drive-by "the gunman felt the conditions were clearly right for the shooting".

The person drove up to Das Kino in Fletcher Gate, and stopped next to two parked taxis.

"He reaches into his pocket and he pulls out a handgun," says Mr Lloyd-Jones. "He cocks the weapon and, using a two-handed grip, he takes aim at door staff who were working outside the bar, and he starts shooting and he fires five live rounds in their direction.

"The door staff run for cover. Luckily none of them were hit but members of the public were. They included a wholly innocent member of the public, who went with her partner on a night out in Nottingham.

"She was shot through her left arm. The bullet went in one side and out of the other and the bullet passed through the shirt of her partner".

The gunman put his pistol away, did a U-turn on the moped, jumped a red light and headed east out of the city. The moped ended up in Briarwood Avenue, off Porchester Road.

Mr Lloyd-Jones said defendant Jordan Murray's DNA was found on the moped's right hand grip. Co-accused Tarquin James's DNA was found on string used to hold a fake number plate on the moped.

Jurors have heard Murray, 26, of Beckhampton Road, Bestwood Park, James, 29, of no fixed address, and Nathaniel Skerritt 31, also of no fixed address, are charged with conspiracy to murder, possessing a prohibited firearm and possessing ammunition.

The prosecution allege this was an agreement to murder a member of the Neilan family, whose business Prosec Security provided security, or one of their employees outside the bar.

Defendant Patryk Matoga, 19, of Laurel Avenue, Shirebrook, allegedly encouraged or assisted the commission of an offence, namely murder, believing it would be committed. He was said by the prosecution to have provided the gunman's moped.

Skerritt faces two charges of possessing a prohibited firearm and ammunition without a firearms certificate.

The court heard he was arrested on November 8 last year, a few days after the Das Kino shooting, and was searched by police.

The pistol allegedly used in the Das Kino shooting was found in a bag hidden in his underwear and 11 live rounds of ammunition. Six rounds were in the bag, four rounds were in the gun's magazine and a final round was actually loaded into the chamber of the pistol.

Murray, James, Skerritt and defendant Dianvelli Williams, 22, of Silk Mill Avenue, Leeds, face a charge of conspiracy to murder, between September 1, 2018, and October 30, 2018, in relation to an earlier shooting in Upper Langwith.

Mr Lloyd-Jones explained: "Here the prosecution say that the criminal enterprise, the agreement was to kill a member of the Neilan family at their home address".

A gunman went to a window at their home and fired five shots through the living room window at Janice Neilan, who was not injured.

Murray, James, Skerritt and Williams are further charged with possessing a prohibited firearm - a pistol with a barrel less than 30-centimetres in length - and possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate in relation to the Upper Langwith incident.

The jury was told about a fourth defendant, Keiron Gordon, 31, of no fixed address, who is accused of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence. He allegedly supplied the gang with a getaway car, a blue Land Rover Freelander.

Two women in the dock - Gina Watson, 31, and 32-year-old Sapphina Anderson - are accused of assisting an offender.

It is alleged that on the day of the Upper Langwith shooting the women drove Murray and Williams away from the scene and back to Nottingham.

Murray and James face a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice between November 20, 2018, and June 17, 2019. They allegedly contacted a prosecution witness and induced her to change the account that she had provided to police.

All charges are denied.

The trial, expected to last ten weeks, continues on Monday, October 21.