Man cleared of dance floor murder

Natasha Derby died the day after being shot on a dance floor

A 29-year-old man has been cleared of killing a woman on a dance floor.

A jury at Reading Crown Court took just over 40 minutes to find Dwane Haughton not guilty of shooting 23-year-old Natasha Derby in High Wycombe, Bucks.

The jury unanimously cleared Mr Haughton of both murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

But Jamaican Mr Haughton, of Rhine Close, Caversham, Berks, was found guilty of possessing ammunition without a licence.

This was on the invitation of the defence after Mr Haughton said he had handled a gun cartridge which was later found at the scene of the attack.

Miss Derby was shot in the head as the Summer Jam reggae event at the Multi-Racial Centre in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was reaching its climax in the early hours of 4 September last year.

Miss Derby, who had helped to organise the event, was rushed to Wycombe General Hospital and placed on a life support machine which was turned off later that weekend.

Fingerprints on cartridge

Although more than 100 people were packed on to the dance floor at the time of the shooting no-one admitted seeing who fired the shot which killed her.

Police took 115 statements from revellers in the weeks and months after the killing but were unable to trace the killer.

Witnesses said that the shot appeared to have come from the righthand side of the dance hall but Dominique Grandison, 19, of Reading, told the court that she had spent the evening dancing and talking with Mr Haughton on the lefthand side.

In her evidence Ms Grandison told the jury that at the time the shot rang out Mr Haughton had had his hand around her waist after an evening of "touchy feely" dancing.

But Mr Haughton was arrested in November of last year after his fingerprint was found on a gun cartridge recovered from the scene of the killing.

Mr Haughton always categorically denied firing the fatal shot but admitted having handled a cartridge in a pub earlier that evening when shown it by another man.

Judge Jonathan Playford QC told the court that Haughton would remain in custody overnight to return to the court on Tuesday, when sentencing on the third count would be considered.