Businessman shot in contract killing, court hears
A BUSINESSMAN was shot dead in an alleged contract killing ordered by his partner, a murder trial heard (yesterday).
It is believed car dealer Christopher Hartley, 45, was lured to a lonely spot near the Yorkshire Sculpture Park under the false pretext of a drug deal.
Bradford Crown Court heard how his body was found near his Jaguar car at remote Litherop Lane, off Denby Dale Road, late on September 8, 2009.
Mr Hartley had been shot at close range in the head and chest with a shotgun.
Legal recreational drugs were found by his body but 20,000 ecstasy pills were discovered in a "drug factory" within the grounds of his Tingley home.
It is alleged that the victim's car business partner, David Matthew Large, recruited gunman Simon Keith Mullen and paid him a substantial amount of money to pull the trigger.
The jury heard claims Mr Hartley was a gay man with a 15-year infatuation with Large, 35.
It was said they had an intimate relationship and Hartley, of Batley Road, was the "dominant partner" and sometimes violent.
But the trial heard Large said he was straight and had never had a sexual relationship with Hartley.
The court heard that Large was in a relationship with Netherton woman Dawn Mallinson at the time of the killing.
It is the prosecution's case the only way Large could see to end his relationship with Mr Hartley was by having him killed.
Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC told the jury: "Simon Mullen was the gunman. We say he had been recruited by Mr Large and was paid a substantial sum of money to act as the person actually pulling the trigger."
Large, of Rona Croft, Rothwell, and Mullen, 39, of Farding Square, South Shields, both deny murder.
The trial continues tomorrow, see Friday's Express on Friday for more.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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