'Surveillance car' passenger directed gunman to 'supermarket murder scene'

By Michael McHugh, Press Association

A man accused of murder outside a supermarket in Northern Ireland was a passenger in a "surveillance" car used to track the victim and directed the gunman to the scene, police said.

The vehicle carrying Joseph Blair, 34, was following Colin Horner, 35, before the killing and was parked just 30 feet away when the shooting was carried out in front of Mr Horner's three-year-old son in Bangor, Co Down, last May, a detective added.

Blair made a six-minute call to the gunman beforehand and mobile phone analysis and DNA evidence was used to link him to the crime, the officer added.

The gunman, who fired five rounds at close range in a car park, has yet not been identified, he told Newtownards Magistrates' Court.

The victim was under surveillance for up to 11 days before the murder.

The detective inspector said: "It is our belief that he (Blair) was a passenger in the vehicle and would have been in the car park of Sainsbury's and watched the murder being committed."

Blair's barrister summarised the case against his client, in which he is accused of being a passenger in the black Ford Focus "in convoy with the injured person because it was carrying out surveillance work".

The detective said the Focus was believed to have spent some time outside the target's house in Bangor earlier on the day of the killing.

The vehicle was in the car park before and at the time of the shooting and left two minutes after the murder, where it went to meet the red Ford Mondeo carrying the gunman at Six Road Ends, a few miles south of Bangor.

It conveyed the gunman back to a yard in Newtownards, Co Down, the detective added.

He said: "It is the police case that the defendant was a passenger in the black Ford Focus which was driven by the co-accused Alan Wilson, who was charged and is currently on High Court bail.

"The role that this individual played, we believe, was that as the passenger he would have directed the gunman to the scene."

Blair, from Shackleton Walk in Newtownards, is charged with murdering Mr Horner and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Slouched in the dock and wearing a grey T-shirt, he appeared at the Newtownards court on Friday before district judge Austin Kennedy, where he nodded to confirm he understood the charges.

Several police officers and prison warders were present in court.

Two men aged 28 and 29 have already been charged with the murder.

On the day of the attack Mr Horner had travelled from his home to a nearby convenience store on the Rathgael Road.

The detective added: "Police have evidence to show that the black Focus was directly behind the victim during that time.

"Mr Blair makes a six-minute phone call, police would say to the gunman to direct them that the IP (injured person or party) is on the move."

Ten minutes later the vehicles were seen travelling back along Rathgael Road and into Balloo Road, CCTV camera footage showed.

The officer said: "The IP's car is followed into the car park. Wilson was the driver of the vehicle. It is quite clear that there is a passenger in the vehicle but he would not disclose during police interview who that person was.

"I am saying to the court today that Mr Blair was the passenger of that vehicle on the journeys and that can be proved through telephone evidence."

The red Mondeo pulled into the car park and that was when the gunman jumped out and committed the murder, the court was told.

At this stage the Focus was 30 feet away from the victim's car.

The Mondeo carried the gunman away from the area at speed.

The officer added: "Two minutes later the black Ford Focus also leaves the car park but exits in a different direction."

The Mondeo was parked in Kerr's Road near Six Road Ends.

The detective added: "It is the police case that the Ford Focus, which is carrying Alan Wilson and the co-accused ... then travels also to Kerr's Road.

"The red Mondeo is burned and the driver and gunman then leave and head back into Newtownards where the murder was planned."

He said the killing was first "originated" in South Street in Newtownards and the Focus with the gang on board travelled back there to a yard owned by a co-accused.

Police can prove the movements of the mobile phone attributed to Blair through various cell site locations right up to being in close proximity to the victim when he was on the move on the afternoon of his death, the court was told.

The phone was also at Sainsbury's car park at the time of the murder and at Kerr's Road shortly afterwards.

It was turned off 30 minutes later and police have never found it.

During that time Blair was in contact with a co-accused in the murder but not with the driver of the black Focus, the detective said, which was why police believed he was a passenger in the Focus.

DNA evidence was retrieved from the seat belt buckle of the passenger seat of the Focus.

When that was put to him during police questioning he said he may have been in the car at some stage.

He claimed he had lost the sim card for the phone at a house party but police "disproved" that because a witness spoke to him on that phone on the same number two days before the murder, the detective added.

The officer acknowledged a defence counsel suggestion that someone else had also used the phone at around the same time.

The accused has 30 previous convictions, the most serious involving robbery using a weapon.

The district judge refused bail and he was remanded in custody until next month. He will appear via video link on an unrelated matter on 11 October.