'Hired killer went on £25,000 spending spree'
A SOUTH Tyneside man went on a £25,000 spending spree after being paid to carry out a contract killing, a court heard.
Simon Mullen, 39, of Farding Square, Marsden, South Shields, blew thousands of pounds on large screen TVs for himself and his girlfriend using cash paid to him for the murder of businessman Christopher Hartley, Bradford Crown Court was told.
The court also heard he spent 2,490 on a stereo system for his car, as well as 1,400 on a course to renew his offshore certificate.
Alistair MacDonald QC, prosecuting, said unemployed Mullen got the money from David Large for shooting dead Mr Hartley, in a secluded road in Yorkshire on September 8 last year.
Mullen and Large, 35, of Rona Croft, Rothwell, Leeds, both deny the murder of Mr Hartley, who was found with gunshot wounds to his head and chest in a lay-by near Clayton West, between Huddersfield and Barnsley.
On the first day of their trial yesterday, the court heard that Large had been in an "intimate" relationship with Mr Hartley for 15 years, but had recently started seeing Dawn Mallinson, a woman he met on Facebook.
Mr MacDonald said Mr Hartley, from Tingley, in West Yorkshire, was the "dominant partner" in the relationship and was sometimes abusive and violent.
The jury of six men and six women was told that when Mr Hartley found out about the new relationship, he smashed the window of Large's Mercedes car and made threatening phone calls to Miss Mallinson.
The court heard how Large ordered Mullen to carry out the murder after luring Mr Hartley to the rural spot under the false pretext of a drugs deal.
Mr MacDonald told the court: "It is our case that Simon Mullen was the gunman, and we say he had been recruited by Mr Large and paid a substantial sum of money to act as the person actually pulling the trigger."
The barrister said Large, who had been in London at the time of the killing, went to Miss Mallinson's home the day after the murder with a bag of cash, which he said contained 100,000, although when later
seized by police, contained 48,000 in notes.
He added that Miss Mallinson had said Large took some money to Mullen on September 17.
The court heard that former offshore rig worker Mullen, who was on benefits at the time of the murder, went on a "huge spending spree" just days later.
He said Mullen spent more than 3,900 on a 63in television and Blu-Ray home entertainment system on September 22 and paid 1,500 in cash the following day for a 50in television for his girlfriend.
He spent 2,490 on a stereo system for his car, 2,369 on furniture, 3,500 on a transit van, several thousand pounds on repairs to a car and 1,400 on a course to renew his offshore certificate.
Mullen, who wore a light-coloured, open-necked shirt, and shaven-headed Large, who wore a black sweatshirt, deny the charges.
The trial continues
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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