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- Gunman's victim paralysed for life
A WOMAN who saw her husband gunned down in a cafe claimed
the man with the gun held it to her forehead after the
shots were fired.
Mrs Beverley McCarthy was giving evidence at Chelmsford
Crown Court where Michael Beckwith, 49, of Meadow Way,
Wickford, denies attempting to murder her husband Michael,
45, a property dealer of Haslemere Road, Wickford on January
23 this year. He also denies causing him grievous bodily
harm with intent.
Mrs McCarthy said she was helping at Rebels Cafe, Runwell
Road, Wickford, and her husband arrived and started talking
to Beckwith's son Lee. They both went outside but returned
and her husband ordered breakfast. Lee left. She was later
sitting at a table when she heard a woman screaming and
a door bang open.
She said: "Everything happened at once. I heard a
gun go off before I saw anything. I turned round and the
first thing I saw was a gun and smoke coming from it."
Mrs McCarthy alleged the gun was just a few feet away
from her and being pointed by Beckwith.
She said: "I didn't realise my husband had been shot.
Michael Beckwith came by me and stayed in the middle of
the cafe. Then I realised Mike had been shot, he was on
the floor on his back." She alleged Beckwith stood
over her husband and pointed the gun towards his head
and fired it again.
She grabbed Beckwith from behind with both arms and pleaded
with him not to shoot any more. She said: "We were
both panicking and I had my finger caught in a button
hole of his coat and couldn't get away. He swung round
and pointed the gun at my forehead at close range. I don't
know whether the gun went off or not, he went to pull
the trigger, I saw that."
She said people grabbed Beckwith from behind and he was
bundled out of the door. Mr Jeremy Gompertz, QC, prosecuting,
told the jury that three days later Beckwith went to Wickford
police station. He denied being in the cafe and said he
was at home.
Mr Gompertz said Mr McCarthy, 45, a property developer,
who gave evidence from a wheelchair would be paralysed
from the waist down for life. At an earlier hearing Mr
Gompertz told the court: "The prosecution say the
man who shot him was Michael Beckwith because Mr McCarthy
saw the man with the gun and recognised him as Beckwith,
a man he had known for many years."
Mr Gompertz said Mr McCarthy's wife also recognised Beckwith
as the man who fired the shots. A customer picked him
out at an identity parade. Mr Gompertz said Mr McCarthy
had breakfast and as he was getting up to leave, Beck
with appeared from the rear of the cafe and shouted something
which sounded to at least one witness as "I'm going
to kill you McCarthy."
Mr McCarthy saw he had something in his right hand and
then there was a loud bang and he felt a burning sensation
in his back and fell to the floor, Mr Gompertz alleged.
He further alleged Beckwith went over and pointed the
gun very close to Mr McCarthy's head and fired again as
he lay helpless on the floor.
On January 26 Beckwith went to Wickford police station
with his solicitor. He was asked where he was the previous
Sunday and said he went to a car boot sale at Basildon
Hospital. He left there between 11 and 12 and went home.
He denied going to the cafe. Mr Gompertz told the jury
the prosecution did not have to prove a motive, but there
had been bad blood between Beckwith and Mr McCarthy.
The trial continues. |
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