FOR greater than 5 years, the Apple iPad lay buried within the Thames riverbed, a brief distance from the O2 Enviornment.
The battered machine, water-damaged and caked in mud, was found by a police marine unit — and helped convict three ruthless profession criminals for an tried underworld hit job.
Former cage fighter and infamous armed robber Paul Allen, referred to as The Enforcer, was left completely paralysed from the chest down after being shot twice in July 2019.
The following six-year investigation into the taking pictures — at a big indifferent home Allen was renting from comic Russell Kane in Woodford, East London — unravelled a world net of crime.
Prolific criminals Daniel Kelly and brothers Stewart and Louis Ahearne, who had been final month discovered responsible of conspiracy to homicide Allen, had been additionally linked to a £2.8million housebreaking at a Swiss museum and a break-in at a luxurious condominium in Kent.
Kelly, 46, and the brothers aged 46 and 36 will likely be sentenced subsequent week.
Nonetheless, their motive for attempting to kill underworld hardman Allen, 46, stays as clear because the Thames mud wherein Kelly’s iPad was discovered buried on November 7 final 12 months.
It was certainly one of a string of primary errors at odds with the South London trio’s repute as worldwide artwork thieves and top-level villains.
Det Supt Matthew Webb explains that officers discovered the iPad after realising the scene of the taking pictures was near the Thames and that one thing could have been deposited there.
One of many key errors made by the gang was Louis Ahearne mentioning in his defence disclosure that he had stopped near the river.
Det Supt Webb provides: “We had been pondering most probably it was the Glock 9mm pistol used within the taking pictures which has by no means been recovered, and determined to method the Marine Unit to see what we may obtain.
Severing a finger
“The iPad had been underneath the water and lined in mud and water-damaged. However the important thing factor was the pink Vodafone sim card inside was nonetheless working.
“We knew it was related to Kelly’s telephone quantity. It had been in his iPhone then switched to the iPad every week earlier than Allen was shot.”
Information pulled from the iPad revealed how the gang tailed Allen’s Mercedes because it was pushed by his companion, Jade Bovington, in Woodford at 2pm on the day earlier than the taking pictures.
It additionally revealed an electronic mail account utilized by Kelly to purchase on-line burner telephones linked with the homicide plot.
Louis Ahearne later admitted in courtroom he had put a tracker on Allen’s automotive, however claimed he believed he was solely participating in a housebreaking.
His DNA, together with Kelly’s, was discovered on a neighbour’s fence, from the place the semi-automatic Glock with a laser sight was fired six occasions in darkness at Allen by way of the illuminated kitchen window.
Allen was standing at a sink along with his younger step-son close by and was shot twice.
Det Supt Webb says: “It was luck, not judgment, that the kid was not murdered.”
One bullet hit Allen within the hand, severing a part of a finger, and the opposite struck him within the throat.
Allen gasped: “I’m going to die,” and he was discovered by a neighbour on the steps “like a sack of potatoes”.
His life was saved by surgeons who eliminated a bullet from his backbone.
Allen’s Instagram account now describes himself as a “sportsperson”.
It options photographs of him in a wheelchair, with captions together with: “Your physique could also be damaged however your thoughts is extra highly effective than ever.”
Nonetheless, Det Supt Webb says: “For anyone who has lived such a vibrant life as Paul, it’s most likely a destiny worse than dying to finish up paralysed for all times.”
Allen was born in Chatham, Kent, however grew up in Woolwich, South East London, changing into shut associates with fellow cage fighter Lee “Lightning” Murray.
Each had fearsome reputations amongst different criminals and went on to be a part of an armed gang who stole £53million from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
Solely £21million from the 2006 heist was ever recovered.
4 days after the theft, Allen and Murray fled to Morocco and arrange dwelling at a villa on the outskirts of Rabat.
The pair indulged in cocaine and girls, blew giant sums of cash at casinos and had gladiator-style murals of themselves painted on the partitions.
However the steroid-pumped pair drew consideration to themselves and had been arrested at a neighborhood buying centre in June that 12 months as they watched an England World Cup recreation.
Murray, whose father comes from Morocco, continues to be in jail there after exercising his proper to face trial regionally.
He was given a ten-year sentence for the theft, later elevated to 25 years.
Allen was extradited to the UK and pleaded responsible at Woolwich Crown Courtroom in 2009.
He was jailed for 18 years and launched in 2016 with time served on remand.
In September 2018 a gunman opened hearth on him outdoors his mom’s Woolwich dwelling, hitting his pregnant daughter within the hip.
A suspect was later cleared however the assault confirmed Allen had no scarcity of enemies.
They’re extremely organised criminals however seem to have develop into so blasé they didn’t assume they’d be discovered chargeable for their actions.
However a sequence of bungling actions has led to their demise
Det Supt Webb
The Operation Trident workforce investigating the Woodford incident bought their first breakthrough after acquiring particulars of the gang’s silver Renault getaway automotive from ANPR cameras.
It had been rented two days earlier by Stewart Ahearne in his personal identify.
Det Supt Webb stated: “Helpfully there was CCTV of him being dropped off there in Dartford by Kelly in a automotive linked to him.”
In yet one more mistake, additional CCTV revealed that 90 minutes earlier than the taking pictures, the rent automotive pulled right into a storage in Greenwich, South East London, the place Louis Ahearne was filmed shopping for two bottles of Oasis drinks.
Felony historical past
Kelly and Louis Ahearne had been each later jailed for 5 years for one more break-in in Kent, two nights earlier than the taking pictures of Allen, wherein the identical rent automotive was used.
Police had arrested them a month after Allen’s taking pictures, and at Kelly’s dwelling they found a laser sight which might match a Glock pistol and, intriguingly, a e book on Chinese language antiques saved in European museums.
Coincidentally, detectives found that Swiss colleagues investigating a £2.8million break-in at Geneva’s Museum of Far Japanese Artwork had been thinking about questioning Stewart Ahearne.
Kelly and the brothers stole two Ming dynasty bowls and a vase from a cupboard after breaking by way of the entrance door of the poorly guarded museum six weeks earlier than Allen was shot.
Stewart Ahearne left his DNA behind when he scraped his abdomen crawling by way of a gap within the door’s decrease panel.
Swiss police confirmed Met detectives an image of a person secretly filming the show case the day earlier than it was ransacked, and so they immediately recognised his brother Louis.
Det Supt Webb says: “Having dedicated the Geneva housebreaking they introduced the gadgets again to London.
“They then flew out to Hong Kong and after we downloaded their telephones, that they had taken some good selfies of their journey.
“They’d offered one of many bowls to an public sale home for £80,000. We then turned conscious that somebody was attempting to promote a Ming vase to artwork merchants. There was a suggestion it is likely to be stolen and we arrange an undercover operation.”
Stewart Ahearne turned up with Mbaki Nkwha — an in depth affiliate of the now imprisoned Kelly — at a central London resort in October 2020 with the thirteenth Century Ming vase inside a JD Sports activities bag.
The Securitas Depot Heist
- The heist came about on February 21, 2006
- Notes had been stolen from the Securitas depot in Vale Highway, Tonbridge, Kent
- The supervisor of the depot, Mr Colin Dixon, was pulled over by what he thought was an unmarked police automotive
- The automotive had flashing blue lights, whereas a person carrying a faux police uniform and flashing a faux badge, ordered him into their automotive
- On the identical time, Mr Dixon’s spouse and son had been being held hostage at their dwelling in Herne Bay, after answering the door to a different man dressed as a police officer
- His household had been then taken to Elderden Farm and instructed, at gunpoint, to co-operate
- The gang and the hostages had been then transported to the depot at the back of a lorry
- Workers members had been certain and threatened by the gang, who had been armed with pistols, shotguns and assault rifles
- Financial institution notes had been then loaded on to the again of a truck, whereas workers members had been left locked in money cages
- The gang was out and in of the depot inside two hours
- The heist was the most important money theft in British historical past, with £53,116,760 stolen
They had been arrested as they tried to promote it to an undercover officer. Nkwha and Kelly’s son, former West Ham youth participant Kaine Wright, had been each jailed in 2023 for his or her half in attempting to promote the vase.
In the meantime, brothers Louis and Stewart had been extradited to Switzerland the place they had been convicted of the Geneva housebreaking in January final 12 months and jailed for 42 months every.
They had been launched in September and extradited again to Britain and charged with the plot to homicide Allen.
Not one of the defendants has ever provided any rationalization over why Allen was focused.
Kelly instructed police he feared for his life if he revealed any data, stating: “I reckon I’d be murdered for it.”
The defendants nonetheless face a mountain of potential hassle after they’re sentenced subsequent week.
Louis Ahearne fears that he’s a marked man after Kelly was overheard telling him in a jail van: “How is the snitch life treating you, Lou?”
And Kelly himself continues to be needed by the Swiss over the Geneva museum theft.
He and his son Kaine Wright are additionally needed for a theft on a Tokyo jewelry retailer of gems valued at £630,000 in 2015, wherein a safety guard was injured.
Det Supt Webb says of the defendants: “They’re extremely organised criminals however seem to have develop into so blasé they didn’t assume they’d be discovered chargeable for their actions.
“However a sequence of bungling actions has led to their demise.”
