Louise Sweet KC secures acquittal in gang-ordered contract killing trial

Louise Sweet KC, leading Clare Evans and instructed by John Onions Solicitors, secured not guilty verdicts for a client facing allegations of murder, manslaughter and assisting an offender at Warwick Crown Court.

The prosecution had alleged that Louise’s client had driven the gunman from Essex to Leamington Spa in the early hours to carry out a gang-related contract killing. Louise’s client was alleged to have laid in wait with the gunman (and two other associates who had also driven up from Essex) and then driven the gunman away from the scene of the killing at speed.

The defendant, who was identified through ANPR, CCTV and mobile telephone evidence, was the only suspect to be arrested. 

The defence case was that the defendant had travelled to burgle a cannabis factory and had been surprised by the arrival of the deceased’s group, rather than them being the ones ‘lying in wait’, and that the defendant, a Romanian national of only 19 years old, was so terrified of what the gunman might do to him or his family he was compelled to pick him up.

Links to TV coverage of the case:

– https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80kpzxwkgdo

– https://www.itv.com/news/central/2023-10-02/teenager-charged-with-murdering-man-30-shot-in-leamington-spa-warwickshire