Police witness 'wanted new home'

The witness is said to have demanded stables

A gangster's former partner told police she would only give evidence against him if they bought her a new home with stables, an appeal has heard.

Robert Webber, 40, was one of three men jailed in 1998 for a total of 49 years for their part in a series of shootings and stabbings.

An appeal hearing on Tuesday was told his former partner, Elizabeth Stephenson, wanted police to buy her house so she could purchase another before making a statement against the men.

The appeal heard that details of Mrs Stephenson's demands came to light in a police memo.

Bayonet stabbing

Webber and Paul Ashton, 39, both from Gateshead, were found guilty of conspiracy to murder by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court in 1998.

She dictated her house was to have amenities to include a stable to graze her horses

Michael Shorrock, QC

A third man, Paul Lyons, 35, was also convicted of conspiracy to murder for his part in a bayonet stabbing in Gateshead in 1995.

Michael Shorrock, QC for Webber, told the appeal judges at Woolwich Crown Court, south-east London, that Mrs Stephenson wanted facilities to care for her family as well as her horses.

He said: "She had dictated that her house was to have amenities to include a stable to graze her horses.

"The approximate cost of the property was to be between £115,000 to £165,000, exclusive of the cost of moving family and animals."

Standard of living

Mr Shorrock added that Mrs Stephenson wanted confirmation before she was prepared to commit to giving her witness statement.

Mr Shorrock said she was "not prepared to lower her standards of living."

He said this information should have been put before the jury during the 1998 trial.

The men were convicted over their involvement in a series of gang related shootings and stabbings in 1995 and 1996, which the appeal was told about.

Stand off

On July 11, 1995, Terence Mitchell was stabbed with a bayonet in Gateshead and on August 15 he was shot at, along with his associated Stuart Watson.

The appeal was told of two shooting incidents in January 1996 involving Webber and Ashton and Mitchell and Watson.

The first took place on the Redheugh Bridge in Gateshead and the other outside Watson's house.

The appeal heard that Webber and Ashton drew up outside Watson's house in a blue Jaguar and there was a stand off involving Watson, Mitchell and three other men in a van.

Shots were fired down the residential street and Mitchell and Watson were later convicted of possession of firearms with intent to endanger life.