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Alleged killer of book dealer had list of public targets, jury told Alleged killer of book dealer had list of public targets, jury told
(about 2 hours later)
A man stabbed and beat an antiques dealer to death after drawing up a list of robbery and kidnap targets that also included Kate Moss, Jeffrey Archer and other prominent business and political figures, a jury has been told. An unemployed man stabbed and beat an antiques dealer to death, after drawing up a list of robbery and kidnap targets that also included Kate Moss, Jeffrey Archer and other prominent business and political figures, a jury has been told.
Michael Danaher attacked and murdered Adrian Greenwood at his home in Oxford on 6 April, then ransacked his house for valuables including a rare first edition of The Wind in the Willows worth £50,000, Oxford crown court heard. Michael Danaher attacked and murdered Adrian Greenwood at his home on Iffley Road, Oxford, on 6 April this year, after plotting for months to rob him of rare books including a first edition of The Wind in the Willows worth £50,000, Oxford crown court heard.
Oliver Saxby QC told the jury Danaher had killed the antiques dealer in a brutal assault that left him with multiple stab wounds to the chest, neck and back, numerous blunt force injuries, including one that suggested he had been stamped on, and wounds to his hands consistent with Greenwood trying to grab the knife. The blade of the weapon had snapped off in the attack, he said. Oliver Saxby QC, prosecuting, told the jury the antiques dealer died in a “brutal” assault that left him with multiple stab wounds to the chest, neck and back and numerous blunt force injuries, including one that suggested he had been stamped on. Wounds to his hands suggested Greenwood tryied to grab the knife, the blade of which snapped of in the attack, he said
The jury heard Greenwood’s name appeared on a list of wealthy targets which the defendant, who lived in Peterborough, had researched online and saved on his phone and laptop in an Excel spreadsheet he called “Enterprises”. Alongside their names and addresses, Saxby said, Danaher listed “modus – in other words, how he was going to do what he was going to do,” and “expected take”. The methods listed included “stun gun” and the words “sister” and “daughter”, alongside the word “ransom”. Greenwood’s name had appeared with the listing: “Modus: Any!! Expected take: rare books,” the barrister said. The court heard that Greenwood’s name appeared on a list of wealthy targets that Danaher, an unemployed father of two from Peterborough who tried to to make ends meet by buying and selling on the internet, had researched online and saved in an Excel spreadsheet he called “Enterprises”.
Saxby told the jury that while some of the names would be unfamiliar, “others you will recognise: businessmen, a model, people connected with politics. Each one shared one characteristic, though: they were people of means, often with large houses, from whom he was planning to get money by going to their addresses and robbing, that is to say, stealing with force. And by demanding a ransom, that is to say, by kidnapping an occupant and then asking their nearest and dearest for money.” Alongside their names and addresses, Saxby said, Danaher listed “modus – in other words, how he was going to do what he was going to do”, “why?” and “expected take”. The methods listed included “stun gun” and the words “sister” and “daughter”, alongside the word “ransom”.
Danaher admits killing Greenwood but denies murder and will argue that he killed the dealer in self defence, Saxby said. The barrister said that after killing Greenwood, Danaher had not called emergency services, but “cool as you like, he helped himself to that first edition of The Wind in the Willows, and Adrian Greenwood’s phone, and his laptop and his wallet.” Analysis of his laptop revealed the accused had also researched and saved the home addresses of celebrities including Simon Cowell, Katie Hopkins, Eamonn Holmes, Michael Parkinson and Rio Ferdinand, as well as the former Football Association chairman Greg Dyke and Adam Simmonds, the Conservative former police and crime commissioner of Northamptonshire, the court heard.
Later that same evening, he told the jury, Danaher had opened the Enterprises document on his laptop and deleted Greenwood’s name from the list, before listing the valuable book on the internet and searching for news that the body had been found. “It takes a certain person to have done what the defendant did to Adrian Greenwood,” Saxby said. “Cool, calculated, controlled. Before, during and after. And underpinning it all? Greed. It was money he was after.” Greenwood, whom the defendant appeared to have targeted after the dealer listed his copy of The Wind in the Willows on eBay in August 2015, was included on the list with the note: “Modus: any!! Expected take: rare books,” the barrister said.
The case continues. The list of targets, he told the jury of four women and eight men, “exudes a sense of resentment. It is almost as if these are people who, because of their wealth (and [the defendant’s] lack of it), deserve to be subjected to what he has planned.” Alongside the names of a number of those listed, including Archer and the private equity investor Guy Hands, the words “scum Tory” were written, Saxby said, adding that police later found a stun gun at the defendant’s home.
Danaher denies murder but Saxby told the jury he now admits killing Greenwood but will argue that it was an act of self-defence.
However, the barrister said that Danaher had emerged from the violent incident “almost unscathed”, and afterwards he had not called emergency services, but “cool as you like, he helped himself to that first edition of The Wind in the Willows, and Adrian Greenwood’s phone, and his laptop and his wallet”.
Later that same evening, he told the jury, Danaher had opened the “Enterprises” document on his laptop and deleted Greenwood’s name from the list, before listing the valuable book on the internet and searching for news that the body had been found.
“It takes a certain person to have done what the defendant did to Adrian Greenwood,” he said. “Cool, calculated, controlled. Before, during and after. And underpinning it all? Greed. It was money he was after.”
The case continues.A man stabbed and beat an antiques dealer to death after drawing up a list of robbery and kidnap targets that also included Kate Moss, Jeffrey Archer and other prominent business and political figures, a jury has been told.