Elias Morgan and Anthony Cleary deny the murder of Lenny Scott
A man accused of murder told a jury he was “at a good friend’s house until the dark hours” on the night a dad-of-three was shot outside a gym. HMP Altcourse guard Lenny Scott died aged 33 after being shot six times by the electric bike-riding gunman outside a gym on Peel Road in Skelmersdale on February 8 last year.
Elias Morgan and Anthony Cleary, both of Edge Hill, are currently on trial at Preston Crown Court charged with his murder. The former is alleged to have been the man who pulled the trigger in an “act of retaliation”, which came nearly four years after the officer exposed an illicit relationship between the then serving prisoner and a female prison officer.
The prosecution case concluded yesterday, Wednesday, and Morgan, wearing a green Nike top and glasses and sporting cropped dark hair, began his evidence. After giving his full name, Morgan apologised to the court “for his terrible accent that people might not be able to understand”.
Morgan’s senior counsel, Caroline Goodwin KC, asked the defendant where he had been on the night of Mr Scott’s fatal shooting. Morgan told the court after depositing £2,245 at the HSBC bank in Liverpool city centre, which he had collected from an address in Whiston, he went to Squires Street to his “close friend’s”.
Morgan told the jury he was with two other people in the car. Morgan said he and another person got out of the car and went into an address on Squires Street, while the third unidentified person drove the Ford Focus back to his mum’s home on Highgate Street.
Ms Goodwin asked Morgan to name the people he was with, but he said no because “the people I go around don’t have 9 to 5s. A lot of people aren’t legitimate.”
Morgan said he was on Squires Street “for hours”, adding: “I was there until it was dark, into the night. The dark hours.” Ms Goodwin asked Morgan if he was in Skelmersdale, with the defendant responding: “No, not at all.”
Morgan told the jury the person who lived at the address on Squires Street was a woman called Carol. He said: “I would get things for her like shopping. She was disabled. She was my friend.” He also told the jury he had left his dog with her but she was “fuming” because it had been there longer than expected.
Morgan told the jury an associate came to collect his dog while he was at the Squires Street address. Ms Goodwin again asked for his name. Morgan said: “I still don’t want to name him, I don’t like to give names. His name is Thomas, but I won’t give his second name.”
He added Thomas was there “about an hour, 90 minutes”, before Ms Goodwin asked what happened to him and the dog. Morgan told the jury Thomas “took the dog”, before he was picked up by a friend “post 9pm” and taken to the L5 area.
Ms Goodwin, who is supported during proceedings by junior Andrew Alty, asked him: “Did you have anything to do with the Mercedes going up to Skelmersdale?” Morgan said “no” and denied knowing of any discussions about the Mercedes.
His defence barrister then asked: “Did you go back to open car doors on the Mercedes in Skelmersdale?” He responded: “No, I wasn’t there on any time of the eighth or the ninth, I know that for a fact.”
Mr Scott was shot outside the gym at 7.35pm shortly after finishing a ju-jitsu class. A man who was standing with Mr Scott when the gunman approached said his final words were “who’s that guy in a mask?” before he was shot. Forensic evidence heard Mr Scott had six gunshot wounds and had been shot with 9mm bullets.
Alex Leach KC previously told the jury during the prosecution’s opening: “The murder was, the prosecution says, an act of retaliation. The prosecution says that, once you have heard the evidence, you will be sure that, at the very least, Elias Morgan orchestrated Lenny Scott’s murder, recruiting Anthony Cleary to assist him in doing so.
“Moreover, the prosecution say that, when you have examined the fine detail of the evidence, you will be sure not only that Elias Morgan is guilty of murder by organising the killing of Lenny Scott, you will be sure that it was he who pulled the trigger himself. For his part, Anthony Cleary played a supporting role.
“Acting on instructions, he delivered the van containing the electric motorbike used by the gunman to a housing estate close to the gym. Moreover, he knew that he was delivering the van and bike so that they could be used by a gunman who intended to kill Lenny Scott, or at least to cause him really serious harm.
“The evidence, when examined in detail, reveals a powerful image, one in which Elias Morgan, driven by a desire for revenge and reliant on Anthony Cleary for his assistance, planned and executed the murder of Lenny Scott. Both men, the prosecution say, are guilty of his murder.”
Both Morgan, 35 and of Highgate Street, and Cleary, 29 and of Smithdown Lane, deny murder, while the latter has also pleaded not guilty to a second count of manslaughter. The trial before Mr Justice Goose continues.
