Connor Smith’s dad admitted driving his son to Portsmouth but told the police he ‘didn’t know that he was wanted on suspicion of murder’
A suspected gunman was driven to Portsmouth by his dad before moving to Spain after he was circulated as wanted in connection with the murder of a teenager, a court has heard. Connor Smith, 26, is accused of being one of two gunmen who were part of a team who planned and carried out the fatal shooting of Nyle Corrigan on November 12 2020.
Mr Corrigan, 19, was shot once in the back when two gunmen waited for him by the side of Boode Croft in Stockbridge Village at around 6.30pm. Three other men – Martin Wilson, 37, Jamie Coggins, 28, and Anthony Llewellyn, 25 – have gone on trial at Liverpool Crown Court alongside Smith after being charged with his murder. The four men are also accused of conspiracy to possess a 9mm Glock self-loading pistol with intent to supply, while Smith’s parents – Melanie Smith, 47, and Mark Sharpe, 49 – are accused of assisting an offender.
Richard Wright KC told the jury of six men and six women that the prosecution’s case was that Wilson and Connor Smith were the gunmen who carried out the shooting but were supported by Coggins and Llewelyn “who were both fully signed up to the plan”. The prosecutor said: “Together, we say, those four men are all responsible for his murder.”
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Mr Wright told the jury that the prosecution’s case was that Wilson and Smith had travelled on foot to the “kill point”, wearing black face masks and gloves and with their hoods pulled up. He added once there the two gunmen “were in the area knowing that Nyle Corrigan was going to be present. They were waiting for him and this was a trap.”
Mr Wright told the jury that Mr Corrigan’s killers “exchanged words with their target before and after the shot”, that went through his spine and shredded an artery. They then left him to die before they used his Sur-Ron electric bike to escape.
Mr Wright said in the days after the shooting Smith was seen on CCTV going back and forth to his home address at Reliance House in Liverpool’s city centre. However, Mr Wright said it was “clear that he was not living there” with CCTV showing Smith and his co-defendants Coggins and Llewellyn leaving with a rucksack on one occasion and a large amount of belongings in bags and rucksacks on another.
The court heard that on November 16 2020 the three co-defendants headed in the general direction of a block of flats on Liverpool’s waterfront called Alexandra Tower. Mr Wright said: “The prosecution say that this was effectively a safe house used by Coggins, Smith and Llewellyn to lie low.” The court heard the following day Smith was formally circulated as wanted by the police.
The court heard in the following days Llewellyn and Coggins were arrested, at that stage on suspicion of assisting an offender. Mr Wright said: “On the 22nd of November, no doubt in response to the arrests of his friends, Connor Smith made an internet search for the sentence for the offence for assisting an offender.”
Mr Wright said the following day telephone contact between Smith’s parents “confirm that their son was lying low and, we suggest, it is perfectly obvious that they knew why he was lying low”. The prosecutor added: “There are similar messages about their son on the 25th before on the 26th, the same day that the police recovered Nyle Corrigan’s Sur-Ron bike, Connor Smith made contact with his parents. He was not just checking in – he was arranging to leave Liverpool for Portsmouth and his parents were both signed up to help him to escape the attention of the police.”
Mr Wright said messages and internet searches after Connor Smith had gone to Portsmouth “confirmed his parents knew very well that he was wanted by the police and that they had assisted him to evade detection”. The court heard that by December 10 he had checked into a hotel in Madrid in Spain.
The court heard Smith remained there “for a prolonged period of time”, with phone data from co-defendant Coggins showing pictures of Smith in the Mijas area of Spain in January 2022. The court heard: “Smith had certainly returned from Spain by the 22nd of May 2023 because on that date he surrendered to the police and was arrested on suspicion of murder.”
Mr Wright said: “The timing of his return from Spain appears to be significant. In April 2023 the police finalised their investigation into a number of others connected to Smith and who feature in the background to the killing. It was only after the defendant would have become aware of that decision when he returned to the jurisdiction.”
Smith and Coggins did not respond during their police interviews, while Llewellyn answered no comment. Wilson provided a prepared statement in which he denied involvement in the murder and stated he was at an unidentified friend’s house several miles away from the scene of the shooting at the time.
The court heard Sharpe admitted taking his son to Portsmouth because “he knew Connor Smith was in trouble and needed to get away from Liverpool”. However, he said he did not know why and did not know he was wanted on suspicion of murder. Melanie Smith made no comment during her police interview.
During the prosecution’s opening Mr Wright told the jury that the alleged gunmen Smith and Wilson were seen on CCTV pulling up outside the Old Roundabout Convenience Store close to the latter’s address on Highfield Road shortly after 5.30pm on the night of the shooting. Mr Wright said Wilson, who had left his phone at home while Smith’s was out of use until after 7pm, was then seen exiting the car and entering the shop.
He told the jury: “This visit to the shop and the items that were purchased by Wilson are significant in the context of the imminent shooting of Nyle Corrigan. The defendant Wilson purchased two sets of black hats, black face masks and black gloves. Having left the shop, they did not go back to Wilson’s home.”
At 6.08pm a CCTV camera on Brandearth House on Brandearth Hey in Stockbridge Village captured two people walking in the direction of Quickthorn Crescent. Mr Wright told the jury: “The sightings are consistent with the defendants Wilson and Smith having abandoned their vehicle and now proceeding on foot to carry out the shooting. The last time we saw them they had all of the equipment that they would need other than a firearm and ammunition.”
Around 6.14pm a CCTV camera that covered the entrance of Quickthorn Crescent captured a vehicle travelling at speed. The prosecution said an expert in vehicle comparison had concluded the car seen is likely a BMW 3 series of the same type as owned by co-defendant Coggins. Mr Wright told the jury: “This was, we suggest the pre-shooting rendezvous when the missing components of the plan could be brought together including: gun, ammunition, location of the victim and the rough plan for the post shooting clean up.”
Mr Wright said the two figures, who the prosecution say are Smith and Wilson, were then seen on a camera taken from the Denecliff flats off Haswell Drive “back on foot and making their way to the kill point”. He said: “They were plainly now in possession of a firearm and ammunition.” The prosecution told the jury that this was the last time the figures were seen before the CCTV that showed Mr Corrigan being shot.
The court previously heard the jury heard “the origins of the dispute lie with a man called Liam Cohen”. Mr Wright said Mr Cohen also lived on Little Moss Hey with his partner Kayleigh Donnelly and had previously been on good terms with Mr Corrigan but the relationship “had soured” because of an unpaid debt.
The court heard that messages suggested Mr Cohen owed Mr Corrigan £60, while Wilson, a distant relative of the former, also owed £20. The jury heard messages that showed firstly Ms Kelly, using her daughter’s Facebook account, and later Mr Corrigan himself attempted to retrieve the unpaid money.
Mr Wright said this culminated on November 9 when Mr Corrigan sent Ms Donnelly a message that said: “It’s you with the attitude you cheeky c***. I’m texting you because all he does is blank, tell him I want the dough tomorrow.”
Mr Wright told the jury that Mr Cohen sent a message to Wilson and said: “Ring me lad, need you to come down Lesley with me, the cheeky c*** calling Kay and that.” Mr Wright said the “minor debt” had escalated and an “irritated” Mr Cohen had “brought in” Wilson.
The prosecutor told the jury on November 11 “a team of men gathered around Martin Wilson and travelled to Little Moss Hey”. The court heard that shortly after 9pm Ms Kelly and her daughter Ms Corrigan were at home when an Audi 4×4 pulled up at their house and a number of men, “wearing balaclavas and face coverings”, demanded to know where Mr Corrigan was.
Mr Wright told the court that the group said “Nyle was dead”, and when Ms Corrigan left to go to her granddad’s house they followed her in the car and shouted her brother “should not start something if he wasn’t going to finish it”.
Coggins, of The Spinney, Stockbridge Village; Llewellyn, formally of Olivette Way, St Helens; Smith of Midway Road in Huyton; Wilson, of no fixed address, and Melanie Smith and Mark Sharpe, both also of Midway Road, deny the charges before them. The trial before Mr Justice Goose continues.
