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
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Showing comments 1 to 25 and replies | View All
Guten Tag, Manchester (20/05/2009 at 18:15)
sigmund fraud., strangeways. (20/05/2009 at 20:07)
Mr Manchester (20/05/2009 at 22:19)
Hamish Macbeth, Whitefield (20/05/2009 at 23:04)
Hopefully this will make young muppets think before doing the dirty work of "gangstas" innit !
Dan Dare (20/05/2009 at 23:23)
GMP should be so very proud of convictions like this.
S P In exile, Tameside (21/05/2009 at 01:31)
George Kane, Stretford (21/05/2009 at 07:53)
FrostySnowman (21/05/2009 at 08:17)
A Manc and blue (21/05/2009 at 09:08)
RJKS, St Retford (21/05/2009 at 10:06)
The Very Cheeky Monkey, in the trees (21/05/2009 at 10:22)
cheeky chops, Manchester (21/05/2009 at 10:33)
Hopefully this will stay that way too. They got what they deserved.
Guten Tag, Manchester (21/05/2009 at 10:48)
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?
Ace Shakespeare , manchester (21/05/2009 at 11:15)
Gervaise, Ashton under Lyne, Lancs. (21/05/2009 at 11:24)
"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.
Maynard Kitchener Lampwick Manchester , (21/05/2009 at 11:26)
Mark,Radcliffe. (21/05/2009 at 11:44)
curiousyellow, Rusholme (21/05/2009 at 12:20)
Classy.
Ted Striker, Banned from being Cunning for no apparent reason it would seem... (21/05/2009 at 12:33)
curiousyellow, Rusholme
21/05/2009 at 12:20
Ah yes, the Costa del Crime...
Esso Blue, Manchester. (21/05/2009 at 12:37)
Bigkecks (21/05/2009 at 12:56)
JTC Formerley JimC (21/05/2009 at 13:10)
Another piece of scum of the streets. Well done to all the authourities involved.
Joe Mercer's Ghost, Ramsbottom (21/05/2009 at 13:25)
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!
George Kane, Stretford (21/05/2009 at 13:52)
He was from Bury watching a team from Trafford while organising a hit in Salford.
Why is this a Manchester story ?
dale sander (21/05/2009 at 15:09)