A MAN has been sentenced to life for masterminding an assassination plot while watching Manchester United play at Old Trafford.
Bobby Speirs, 41, showed no reaction as he was convicted of his part in organising the bloody Brass Handles pub shootout in Salford three years ago.
Speirs believed he had the 'perfect alibi' when he went to the game between Manchester United and Newcastle United at the time of the horrific shooting.
Watching
He was watching the game from an executive box as he organised the 'hit' during half-time.
He was using mobile phones to oversee a plot to send two gunmen to the pub and carry out a 'planned execution', according to the prosecution.
The gunmen went into the pub and opened fire, wounding two victims in a volley of shots one Sunday afternoon in March 2006. But the 'hit' backfired as the would-be assassins were overpowered by other people in the pub.
It is thought they were disarmed and shot dead with their own guns.
Speirs was instrumental in planning the operation and kept in touch with two others involved by mobile phone leading up to the shootings.
Within days, Speirs fled to Spain but he was extradited several months later.
Guilty
Speirs, who at the time lived in Butterstile Avenue, Prestwich, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder but was unanimously found guilty after four hours of deliberations by the jury.
Two others, Ian McLeod, an infamous Manchester gang leader, and Constance Howarth, had already been convicted at an earlier hearing of roles in the murder plot.
The two would-be assassins, Richard Austin, 19, and Carlton Alveranga, 20, died after being shot in the chest. They had gone to the pub on the Langworthy Estate to kill but ended up losing their own lives.
Among the customers in the Brass Handles at the time were David Totton and Aaron Travers, who were said to be the 'possible' targets.
The gunmen went to the pub with McLeod while Howarth was inside acting as a 'spotter' to point out the victim or victims.
Survived
Mr Totton and Mr Travers were seriously injured as shots were fired but survived.
Some customers fought back and Austin and Alveranga were disarmed and shot during the botched assassination.
No-one has ever been brought to justice for the murders of Austin and Alveranga. Speirs was trapped by police thanks to so-called 'cell site analysis' which plotted the movements of mobile phones associated with the defendant and others involved in the plot. He was tracked down in Benidorm.
The judge, Mr Justice Griffith Williams, thanked the jury, saying: "These are difficult cases and I know that they impose and involve particular strains on jurors. I repeat my thanks to you."
Speirs was today sentenced to life by the judge.
From the M.E.N archives
Protection offered in Brass Handles case
Life for Brass Handles pair
Bloodbath in a family pub
Comments
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Opps. I feel a loooooong sentence coming on considering other high profile 'gangster' cases. Bobby, you may well celebrate your 70th birthday behind bars! Gulp! Was it worth it?
Apparently Old Trafford is the place to visit if you want to mastermind a assassination. Is there a particular corporate box you sit in while plotting this murder. You couldn't make this up.
Another one bricked up. Goodbye.
Well done to the cops who investigated this job - and got Spiers convicted despite his alley-lie.
Hopefully this will make young muppets think before doing the dirty work of "gangstas" innit !
oh dear oh dear (ha ha) another piece of Salford thug trash is removed from our streets by the determination of police, legal people, jury members and the judge. Well done to all involved. Never mind "the boys are back in town" its now "the boys are back in jail" all this lot were/are bullies and I speak from experience. Few more to go. Who is next though :-)
GMP should be so very proud of convictions like this.
Not so Mr Big now are you.
Awful situation all round. 19 & 20 no age to die.
Hopefully he should get at least 30 years, and we will get a few posters put up around Salford to show how he will look when he is approaching his md-70s, like the other campaign.
Thw whole thing of being from Manchester and being at Old Trafford does not make sense to me
God know's what he will look like at 70 ?, he looks knackered now !!. GOODBYE Mr Small !.
Well done GMP and the people brave enough to assist them.
"No-one has ever been brought to justice for the murders of Austin and Alveranga."
Hopefully this will stay that way too. They got what they deserved.
Constance Howarth was also involved, and received a minimum sentence of 20 years. She'll be close to her 60th birthday on release (depending on whether or not she's released, but hopefully the parole board will keep her in until she's into her 60's).
What I'm trying to say is, I really can't work out the mindset of these people. For a few minutes of madness, they'll enjoy years of solitary life inside a concrete box. I have the freedom to go to the shops when I want, visit the cinema or sit in the garden when the sun decides to shine. These people won't enjoy these or any simple pleasures for between 20-35 years! And when they are released, will they be still interested in the life they once had or will it all be beyond them, pubbing, clubbing and so on, aged in their 60's and 70's?
Who'd want to be a gangster when it interferes with life's simple pleasures?
Yet another peice of garbage costing the taxpayer millions to feed and look after (the rope or a lethal injection costs very little)and in the end more humane.
Quote:
"A MAN has been sentenced to life for masterminding an assassination plot while watching Manchester"
May I humbly suggest that masterminding is not quite the correct word.
Well done to the Guardia Civil as well in Spain...
This individual demanded to be shown respect....so respectfully send him to HMP Walton.
"He was tracked down in Benidorm."
Classy.
"He was tracked down in Benidorm." Classy.
curiousyellow, Rusholme
21/05/2009 at 12:20
Ah yes, the Costa del Crime...
Cheek chops are you the very cheeky monkey if you are don't eat one of those big bananas from eastlands you could choke.
That is easily the biggest forehead i have EVER seen.......
He looks like he has'nt slept for the 3 years he has been on his toes. Some luggage an that face.
Another piece of scum of the streets. Well done to all the authourities involved.
It's a rare thing Ace, but I'm with you - premediated should carry the death penalty - it did for his hired thugs. And for those that killed the hired thugs, well I hope they are found, because they are probably "gangstas" too, anyone who has the bottle to shoot a fellow human being dead in the middle of a housing estate isnt ordinary. I strongly suspect that for me to shoot someone, they would have had to have killed one of my two sons.
All of us need to clean up society. This Mr Big is 41, 13 years younger than me, so it would have been 1979 when he entered secondary school, by which time most of the discipline had been removed from schools, and over the interveaning period, from most of the forces of authority such as the police and the courts.
This man is the product of the namby pamby society filled with left wing do-gooders. He is a product, and dare I say a victim, of society. It's our fault the likes of this man have lived the lives they have. Had we been a more respectful and disciplined society over the past 30+ years, half of our gang culture crimes would not have happened.
Yes there will always be crime, we are human and we are greedy and the things we haven't got we buy, if we cant buy them we steal them or we kill for them and those who do it now do it because no-one has ever shown them that it is absolutely wrong and a harsh punishment will follow if you do step over the line.
Stand up and be counted - it's time our political masters did a little more than pay lip service to law and order within our society. There is an election coming up - show your views at the ballot box!
A Manc & Blue
He was from Bury watching a team from Trafford while organising a hit in Salford.
Why is this a Manchester story ?
how sad it is to see people with false names commenting on someone they more than likely have never meet. why don't you use your real names your quick to judge but scared to put your names up - come on be brave put your names and address up it would be great to see how brave you all are then. You must be the grass squad or the police or is it the little boy's club?