Pub shooting mayhem - court (From This Is Lancashire)

Pub shooting mayhem - court

11:41am Wednesday 21st February 2007

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MASS pandemonium broke out in a crowded pub when two gunmen burst in and opened fire.

Carlton Alveranga, aged 20, and Richard Austin, aged 19, had been ordered to execute two men sitting in the Brass Handles pub in Salford, a court heard yesterday.

But they failed in their mission and were gunned down themselves.

A jury at Preston Crown Court was told they staggered out of the pub in a bid to reach their getaway car, but did not make it and they collapsed and died on nearby grassland.

Ian McLeod, aged 42, of Victoria Street, Radcliffe, Warren Mason, aged 23 of Jackson Street, Kearsley, and Constance Howarth, aged 38, of Rosalind Court, Salford, are accused of conspiracy to commit murder by plotting the attack with Alveranga and Austin.

Another man, Robert "Bobby" Spears, is also suspected of involvement in the alleged plot, but is believed by police to have fled the country.

The masked gunmen stormed into the pub in Edgehill Close, Langworthy, Salford, shortly before 2.15pm on Sunday, March 12, last year.

The Brass Handles was packed with customers watching a live televised match between Manchester United and Newcastle United when Alveranga and Austin struck just before half-time, said Neil Flewitt, QC, prosecuting.

He said: "Alveranga and Austin did not attend the pub to watch the football match or to socialise. They attended to kill.

"Their plan was to kill not only their targets, but also anyone else who got in the way of the volley of shots they fired.

"It is a measure of their lack of success that not only did they fail in their endeavour, but they also lost both their lives."

They approached the table of their believed targets, David Totton and Aaron Travers, and one of them, understood to be Austin, fired six shots.

They knew where to go because Constance Howarth was sitting in the pub shortly before the shootings and had directed them via a mobile phone, the jury was told.

She had left the bar to go to the toilet at the moment Alveranga and Austin entered the premises.

Both Mr Totton and Mr Travers were seriously wounded in the attack, but miraculously survived, Mr Flewitt said.

He said that in the melee that followed the shooting either the gunmen were disarmed or one of the pub customers had a firearm which they used.

Alveranga and Austin received single gunshot wounds to the chest but managed to escape the pub.

They attempted to get to their getaway car, allegedly driven by Mason, but collapsed outside on a stretch of grassland known locally as The Croft.

Several pub customers chased them outside and kicked them while they lay dying on the ground, said Mr Flewitt.

Moments later someone pulled the shutter down on the pub and ripped out the CCTV which captured the incident on film, the jury heard.

No weapons were ever recovered from the pub.

Mr Flewitt said it was the prosecution's case that the actions of Alveranga and Austin were directed by others for a motive which remained unclear.

He said the missing man, Robert Spears, of Butterstile Avenue, Prestwich, needed to secure the execution of Mr Totton and Mr Travers - but not through obvious means.

He was too wise to be linked directly and had the perfect alibi as he was at Old Trafford watching the match which was being televised when the gunmen struck, the court heard.

He chose his assistants Howarth and McLeod to set up the killings.

McLeod ran a firm called I Mach Security in Church Street West, Radcliffe, which was understood to have employed Austin.

The court heard that Howarth was also well connected in the security business and had "more than a passing concern" with a firm called Icarus Security, which employed Spears.

Mason was recruited by McLeod in all probability to drive away the gunmen, the prosecution said.

Mason, like Alveranga and Austin, were minor players who had fallen under the strong influence of McLeod.

Both the gunmen were from the Moss Side area of Manchester and in all likelihood did not know the identity of their targets.

It is alleged they were directed by McLeod, Howarth and Spears who were all said to be in regular phone contact in the hours leading up to the shootings.

Howarth was said to be the "spotter" in the pub who passed on information to McLeod who then relayed the information to the gunmen.

The trial is continuing today.

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