Tobin killers see appeals quashed

Published Date: 23 July 2010
City man among bikers who murdered Hells Angel on M40
A city man jailed for his role in the murder of Hells Angel Gerry Tobin has had an appeal against his conviction thrown out by top judges today.

Malcolm Bull, 55, from Milton Keynes was one of seven members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang who killed Mr Tobin because he belonged to a rival biker club.

The men, mainly from Coventry, who at the time formed the entire South Warwickshire Chapter of the notorious motorbike gang, "executed" Hell's Angel, Mr Tobin, as he rode his bike along the M40 motorway.

Four of the men, who were all jailed for life at Birmingham Crown Court on November 28, 2008 after they were found guilty of murder and related firearms offences, today launched an appeal against their convictions.

One of the men, and a fifth man jailed after admitting the offences, challenged their sentences, saying the minimum terms set by the judge were too long.

But senior judges dismissed all of the appeals, saying there were no grounds for arguing the convictions were "unsafe" and the sentences were not "excessive".

Lord Justice Laws, sitting with Mr Justice Christopher Clarke and Judge Andrew Gilbart QC, told the court Mr Tobin, 35, was shot dead as he rode along the M40 motorway at about 2.40pm on August 12, 2007.

He was returning home to Mottingham, south east London, from a Hell's Angels festival known as the Bulldog Bash at Long Marston airfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon.

The court heard the seven members of the Outlaws gang - who had never previously met their victim - carried out "reconaissance" or "scouting" missions to find a Hell's Angel.

On the day of the murder, three of the men waited in a green Rover near junction 15 of the motorway and another three waited in another car near junction 11 as "back-up" in case the first attempt to kill Mr Tobin failed.

The seventh member of the group was in another vehicle "co-ordinating" the attack and relaying information between the other two vehicles.

The prosecution case at trial was that Dane Garside drove the Rover alongside Mr Tobin while Sean Adrian Creighton fired a pistol.

The bullet hit Mr Tobin just beneath his helmet, killing him instantly. A second shot was then fired at the rear wheel of his motorbike, sending it spinning out of control.

Creighton, 46, of Doncaster Close, Coventry, was jailed for at least 28-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to murder, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and having a shotgun without a certificate.

Simon John Turner, 43, of Vernons Lane, Stockingford, Nuneaton, was jailed for a minimum of 30 years after he was convicted of the same offences.

Dean Anthony Taylor, 49, of Warwick Street, Karl Frederick Garside, 45 of Aldermans Green, Ian Mervyn Cameron, 48, of no fixed address and 44-year-old Dane Garside - all from Coventry - and 55-year-old Malcolm Bull, of Milton Keynes, were given life sentences after being found guilty of murder and possession of a shotgun.

Lawyers acting for Taylor, Turner, Cameron and Karl Garside today argued the jury in their trial should not have heard evidence of Taylor and Turner's previous convictions for violence, as it made the trial "unfair".

The court heard Turner was jailed for 10 years in 1993 after he stabbed and poured petrol over a man who owed a fellow Outlaw money and Taylor was jailed in 1984 after he and seven other men, armed with three loaded shotguns, broke into a house to "retrieve" a motorcycle insignia.

But, dismissing the appeal, Lord Justice Laws said the Crown Court judge was entitled to rule the jury should know about the previous crimes because they had a "resonance" with Mr Tobin's murder.

Lawyers acting for Creighton and Taylor challenged the minimum terms on their sentences, arguing they were "excessive".

But Lord Justice Laws ruled the appeals "should not have been brought" and said the judge could have imposed even longer sentences.