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Shot man's family 'set up his killing'
The wife and stepdaughter of a businessman offered £5,000 to have him killed, a court heard yesterday.
Charles Butler, 50, was gunned down near his Dagenham home in October 2004 and died nine months later from the shooting.
The Old Bailey heard how his wife Yvonne and stepdaughter Marcia offered money to have him killed.
David Austin, 41 from Thornton Heath, and Douglas Johnson, 27 from New Addington, deny murdering Mr Butler.
A businessman was shot dead in a contract killing set up by his wife and stepdaughter, a court has heard.
The jury watched CCTV footage of a man pulling out a gun, which appeared not to go off at point blank range, allowing Mr Butler to escape. But after he tripped he was shot by the gunman, who was then seen running off to a waiting car.
Following the shooting Mr Butler fell into a coma and died nine months later, never regaining consciousness.
Prosecutor Mark Dennis QC said alleged gunman Johnson and getaway driver Austin boasted of the shooting while on remand and said it had been set up by his family.
Mr Dennis told the court how eight months before the incident, police were called to Mr Butler's home over a domestic incident.
No criminal complaint was made but Mrs Butler told an officer she wanted a divorce.
Afterwards Marcia, who is in her 20s, asked Austin's brother Peter "if he knew anyone who could shoot her stepfather, adding that her mother was going to put up the money," Mr Dennis added.
Johnson and his girlfriend Caroline Lavender, 27, deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by lying about a car used in the shooting.
The trial continues.
7:44am Friday 9th May 2008
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