James Byrne, Simon Allen, Barrie Glynn and David Harrison are on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of the murder of Jacqueline Rutter, 53, in October 2022
A man accused of shooting a grandmother dead in her own home had visited a shooting range in the Netherlands to “blast big cal” a week earlier, a court has heard.
Mum-of-six and grandma-of-five Jackie Rutter was gunned down aged 53 on the doorstep of her own home on Meadowbrook Road in Moreton, Wirral, after her sons allegedly “ripped off” or “taxed” drug dealers James Byrne and Preston Connolly.
The former has gone on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of her murder, alongside Simon Allen, Barrie Glynn and David Harrison. A fifth defendant, Connolly’s then girlfriend Anna McGinn, is meanwhile charged with assisting an offender in connection with the fatal shooting.
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Nigel Power KC told a jury of seven men and five women during the prosecution’s opening today, Wednesday: “Nearly three years ago now, on the 30th of October 2022, a lady called Jacqueline Rutter opened the front door to her home address. She was shot in the chest with a gun, which either was or was similar to a Grand Power self-loading pistol, and she died at the scene.”
Powers KC continued: “Jackie Rutter, as she was always known, was a 53-year-old grandmother. But this was no case of mistaken identity. This was a targeted revenge attack in the heat of a dispute over drugs.
“During the trial, you will see CCTV. Three men arrived at her address in a black Vauxhall Insignia car. It was a stolen car. Two passengers were in the back. They got out of the back of the car. They went to Mrs Rutter’s front door.
“When she answered, she was shot twice. One shot missed, one went through her right hand and into her chest. The two men who had gone to her front door got back into the Vauxhall Insignia. They went to a nearby street, where they were met by a fourth man. He had been waiting for them with two other vehicles, a silver Ford C-Max and a Yamaha motorbike. Within minutes of the shooting, the Vauxhall Insignia was alight.
“The two men who got out of the car to kill Jackie Rutter were the first defendant in this case, James Byrne, and another man called Preston Connolly. They were involved in a drugs business together and were taking revenge because, the day before, the phone that they used to run the drugs business had been taken from them by Jackie Rutter’s sons, Steven Rutter and Peter Rutter.
“Preston Connolly fled the country. He went to Istanbul from Manchester on the 30th of December 2023. He will have to be tried at a later date, but he is an important figure in the case and you will hear quite a lot about him.
“The driver of the Insignia was Barrie Glynn. He too was a drugs user. He bought drugs from Preston Connolly and James Byrne, and he also helped with the business. Simon Allen and David Harrison provided valuable assistance to the shooters.
“They too were employees of the drugs business, the JJ Line, as it was known. You will see that they played important roles in what happened. Mr Allen was the person who set fire to the Insignia car
“Anna McGinn, the fifth defendant, was Preston Connolly’s girlfriend. After the murder, she gave lifts to James Byrne and Preston Connolly to help them get away from the locality of the murder and to help them avoid arrest.”
Ms Rutter had previously received threats in relation to the JJ Line, with Byrne being described as the “hands on” controller. In a text message sent to her daughter Louise earlier that month, she expressed fear over an apparent debt to her drug dealers: “He said if he don’t get his money by today, me windows are going in. So am proper worried Lo. Am really p***ed off, believe me love.”
Jackie, a “twice daily user of class A drugs”, apparently “knew that her son Peter had been ripping off, or taxing, local dealers”, telling Louise in another message on October 21, 2022: “I’ve had everyone on me case and I can’t do anything about it. I’m truly p***ed off me self Lo. I give you kids my life. Just so I know you are ok. I’m sat here with f*** all Lo. The thing I’ve done for him because he can’t score, because he ripped every f***er off.”
Mr Power revealed: “Jackie is having trouble getting drugs and Peter can’t help her because no one will deal drugs to him, because he’s in the business of taxing drug dealers of ripping them off. That message chimes perfectly with Louise Rutter’s recollection that, over the years, she had received six, maybe 12, calls from withheld numbers, from Scouse males demanding to know where her brothers were, because they’d been had off.”
The court was told that Allen then drove both Byrne and Connolly to the Netherlands the next day, October 22, via the Eurotunnel. It was alleged that Byrne messaged Allen asking him to “find a shooting range” during their trip abroad, with his co-defendant replying “yes, tomorrow we’re gonna blast big cal”, which was believed to be a reference to “large calibre weapons”.
Meanwhile, the operation of the JJ Line was reportedly “delegated” to Harrison and Byrne’s twin brother James Byrne during their absence, before the trio returned to the UK on October 24. Then, on October 28, it was claimed that Steven and Peter Rutter had “stolen, at the very least, the JJ Line drugs graft phone” from Byrne and Connolly, “with either knowing or unknowing assistance from their mother”, in what was said to be “the event that directly provoked or provided the motive for the murder”.
That morning, both Peter and Jackie were among the recipients of a “flare message”, a text advertising drugs for sale, from the JJ Line phone. The message read: “JJ. Best of both, fat 10s and 20s. Mobile, dropped to door. Best in town.”
This led to drugs being delivered to Jackie Rutter in Allen’s Ford C-Max just after midday, although he wasn’t personally responsible for this drop off as he was spotted riding his Yamaha motorbike in the Heswall area at the same time. She then rang the JJ Line phone again around 3.45pm after a series of contacts with her sons.
Peter Rutter also dialled the same number at 4.11pm, when phone data showed that both devices were in close proximity, before a return call at 4.15pm. Steven Rutter’s Vauxhall Astra was then seen stopping near the Premier convenience store on Fleet Croft Road in Woodchurch, where Allen’s vehicle had earlier driven into the car park.
The brothers were then caught on CCTV using the shop’s cash machine, followed by another call from Peter Rutter to the JJ Line phone. Mr Power told the court: “They use the cashpoint and then they move in different directions, almost in a pincer movement. One goes one way, one goes the other. They both go around to the car park at the back. They run down quickly from that area at the back of the shops. They get into the car and drive off.”
The Rutters were later spotted heading north in the car, with the JJ Line phone also tracked making a similar journey according to cell siting data. Mr Power stated: “Whatever happened at the back of the shops, that very valuable number was never used again. We say that, all of that evidence, taken together, can lead to only one conclusion, that the Rutter brothers have taken the phone and driven away with it.”
Shortly after, Connolly, Allen and Curtis Byrne were captured on CCTV picking up James Byrne from Arrowe Park Road in the Ford C-Max before the latter made several attempted calls to the JJ Line in an alleged effort to “get it back”. Meanwhile, Harrison was reported to have visited the area of the convenience store, supposedly “to see if he could find the phone”, while Glynn tried to contact the JJ Line without success.
Mr Power continued: “The prosecution say, by 6pm on the day before the murder, all four of the defendants charged with the murder knew that the phone was out of action. At least three of them, and Preston Connolly, knew why.”
The next day, Harrison drove to Gloucestershire and back “to pick up a new puppy”, while James Byrne and Allen were reported to have conducted “recces”, or reconnaissance visits, on Ms Rutter’s home and Garden Hey Road, where the Vauxhall Insignia was later set ablaze. The latter then visited a Texaco petrol station purchased four bottles of Lucozade and a quantity of diesel in a jerry can, paying in cash.
Mr Power told the jury: “Simon Allen’s case is that, later that evening, he was instructed to go to Garden Hey Road on his motorcycle and to wait with the Ford C-Max, but he did not know why and did not question it. He said that it was only after he had heard the gunfire and was told there had been a murder that he burned the Insignia under duress.”
Following the petrol station visit, Allen was said to have returned to the property where he lived with Harrison on Downham Road South in Heswall.
Harrison’s Peugeot vehicle and the Ford C-Max then travelled “almost in convoy” to Glynn’s residence on nearby Westway.
The Peugeot and C-Max subsequently travelled to Garden Hey Road, with the latter motor being left “parked awkwardly” at this spot until after the shooting, before the former vehicle collected Connolly and Glynn and drove them to Harrison’s residence shortly before midnight.
McGinn was meanwhile shown to be in the Rock Ferry area whilst apparently in contact with Connolly using Glynn’s phone.
Mr Power added: “The prosecution say that, at midnight, or thereabouts, James Byrne, Preston Connolly, Simon Allen, David Harrison, Barrie Glynn and Anna McGinn are all out and about. They are all on the move.
“David Harrison’s home address was the departure point and, by now, with the exception of Anna McGinn, their phones are either off or sitting at home. We are an hour and five minutes from the murder. We say, by now, a plan involving five men and four vehicles, the Peugeot, the C-Max, the motorbike and the Insignia, has been put into place, and a jerry can with fuel in it has been bought for the burnout afterwards.
“Certainly, by now James Byrne, Preston Connolly, Simon Allen, David Harrison and Barrie Glynn all knew that the JJ Line had been stolen, and they all knew who had stolen it. With such an elaborate plan about to be put into action, what room is there for passengers, people who aren’t involved?”.
“What room is there for people who don’t know what is going to happen, and therefore might get things wrong? And who of the five, the first four defendants and Preston Connolly, would think that phones were going to be out of action or at home for an innocent reason?”.
“We know, and you can be sure already, that Barrie Glynn drove the Insignia to and from the shooting, because he told the police that he did that in interview. We know, and you can be sure, that Simon Allen was waiting with his car, the C-Max, and his motorbike, because he told the police that he did that in interview, which means that it was James Byrne and Preston Connolly who were the two men who got out of the car to carry out the murder, to carry out the shooting.”
Allen, 55, and Byrne, 23, both of no fixed address, along with Glynn, 46, and Harrison, 59, now residing at Old Meadow Road in Pensby, all deny charges of murder, manslaughter, possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, and arson related to the stolen Vauxhall Insignia. Meanwhile, McGinn, 26, from Frankby Stiles, Frankby, has entered a plea of not guilty to two counts of assisting an offender.
The trial, presided over by Mr Justice Goose, is ongoing and is anticipated to last between six to eight weeks.
