Three men have been found guilty of the botched assassination of a former cage fighter convicted of stealing £54million in Britain’s biggest ever cash robbery.
Paul Allen, then 41, was left paralysed after a gunman using a Glock handgun with a laser sight shot him at his large rented home in Woodford Green, north-east London, in 2019.
A jury at the Old Bailey was told the intention was to kill him, and the attackers ‘very nearly succeeded’.
Louis Ahearne, 36, his brother Stewart Ahearne, 46, and Daniel Kelly, 46, were today found guilty of plotting to murder Allen with others unknown.
Reacting to the verdicts in the dock, Stewart Ahearne shouted to the jury: ‘You are only human. That’s all I have to say about that.’
During the trial, prosecutors alleged the background to the shooting was that Allen was a ‘sophisticated’ career criminal.
He was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court in 2009 for his part in Britain’s biggest armed robbery, at Securitas in Kent, in which £54 million in cash was stolen, much of which has never been recovered, the court heard.
Allen was the trusted lieutenant of fellow cage fighter Lee ‘Lightning’ Murray who masterminded the plot. By 2019, he had been released from prison and moved from south London to a large detached property in Woodford, north-east London, where he lived with his partner and young children.
Louis Ahearne, 36, and his brother Stewart, 46, were today found guilty of plotting to murder Allen with others unknown
Daniel Kelly, 46, was also found guilty today as part of the jaw-dropping plot
During the trial, prosecutors alleged the background to the shooting was that Allen was a ‘sophisticated’ career criminal
The court heard how the defendants had planned the shooting carefully, carried out surveillance and fitted a tracker device to the victim’s car to track his movements.
The defendants travelled from their neighbourhood in the Woolwich area of south-east London, through the Blackwall Tunnel, to the victim’s new home in Malvern Drive in a car hired two days earlier by Stewart Ahearne.
While Stewart Ahearne waited in the car, Kelly and Louis Ahearne snuck into a garden overlooking Mr Allen’s back garden.
At around 11.09pm, six shots were fired through the back doors and windows, striking Mr Allen in the neck as he stood in the kitchen.
The men fled back to the waiting car, which drove away, leaving their victim fighting for his life.
During the police investigation, DNA was recovered from the garden fence and matched Kelly and Louis Ahearne.
Bullet casings in the garden were matched to a Glock handgun that was compatible with a laser sight recovered from Kelly’s address.
Further CCTV evidence picked up the hire car driven by Stewart Ahearne.
Allen was the trusted lieutenant of fellow cage fighter Lee ‘Lightning’ Murray (pictured), who masterminded the £54 million robbery on the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent in 2006
By 2019, Allen had been released from prison and moved from south London to a large detached property in Woodford, north-east London
The gang targeted the giant Securitas warehouse, which employed 80 people, sorting out old and new banknotes for distribution to cash machines and banks all over south-east England (pictured, CCTV from the heist)
Jurors heard agreed facts about the defendants’ ‘previous criminality’ relating to a burglary at the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva on June 1 2019, a month before Allen was shot.
Three pieces of Ming-era porcelain were taken from the museum, which had a combined insurance value of 3,580,000 US dollars (£2,760,000).
The items were an early 15th century bottle with a secret pomegranate decoration; a small wine cup known as the ‘chicken cup’; and a 14th century An Huan phoenix design bowl.
The defendants flew to Hong Kong on June 14 2019, where they attempted to sell the phoenix bowl at an auction house.
On October 16 2020, Stewart Ahearne was arrested with another man at a London hotel as they tried to sell the Ming vase to an undercover police officer.
A later search of a property revealed a passport in the name of Stewart Ahearne and a book on Ming dynasty antiques, the court was told.
The brothers were extradited from Switzerland to face trial over the shooting.
The scene on Malvern Drive in Woodford Green, north-east London, where Allen was shot
Allen (centre) leaves court in Rabat in 2007 after he was arrested in Morocco for the Securitas robbery
Louis and Stewart Ahearne were previously jailed for three years and six months in prison at a court in Geneva for stealing Ming Dynasty artefacts worth around £3 million from a Swiss museum
Photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of a cup previously stolen by the brothers
Jurors were also told how two of the defendants were also involved in another burglary in Sevenoaks in Kent, the day before Allen was shot.
The Renault Captur hired by Stewart Ahearne from a dealership in Dartford, Kent, was used by the other two defendants in a burglary on a gated community in the county, the court was told.
Louis Ahearne, from Greenwich, south-east London, and Stewart Ahearne and Kelly, both of no fixed address, had denied the charge against them.
They were remanded into custody to be sentenced by Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC at the Old Bailey on April 25.
Detective Superintendent Matt Webb, from Scotland Yard, said: ‘This attack may look like the plot to a Hollywood blockbuster but the reality is something quite different. This was horrific criminality. The court heard how this was a clear and defined attempt to take a man’s life with those responsible making significant efforts to ensure this was successful.
‘Daniel Kelly, Louis and Stewart Ahearne will now undoubtedly face significant custodial sentences and I hope this time at His Majesty’s pleasure provides them the opportunity to reflect on their criminality and the impact it has on society.’
