Hayley Pointon Hinckley murder: Victim 'shot by mistake'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-33005455

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Masked gunmen shot dead a mum-of-two by mistake after being hired to kill her on-off boyfriend, a court has heard.

Hayley Pointon died at a house in Sunnydale Road, Hinckley, Leicestershire, in February 2013 from a single gunshot to her chest.

The trial of six men charged in connection with the 30-year-old's death has heard she had been visiting her boyfriend when she was targeted.

Aaron Power and Aaron Newman, from Coventry, deny her murder.

Craig Adamson, Dylan Whitty and Jamie Simpson, all of Coventry, and Matthew Dicey from Rugby, Warwickshire are also on trial for assisting an offender and deny the charges.

'Wanted him dead'

Opening the case at Leicester Crown Court, prosecutor James House QC told jurors Ms Pointon's boyfriend, Nigel Barwell, had lived at the address where she died.

Mr House said Mr Barwell had a criminal record and connections with gangs in the West Midlands.

He said two of the defendants had been hired to kill him.

"Someone, we don't know who, wanted Barwell dead," he said.

In a 999 call played to the court, Mr Barwell told the operator Ms Pointon had been leaving his house when two men dressed all in black entered his back garden with a gun.

He said he pushed Ms Pointon back into the house and ran upstairs to get his machete, but heard a gunshot as he did so.

Mr Barwell said when he came back downstairs she had been lying face down and "there was blood everywhere".

On the recording, he could be heard to say "she's not moving or breathing" and "they've killed her".

He told the call handler someone had tried to shoot him two months earlier, when he was attacked by five men.

Mr Barwell said people were after him because of "stuff that's happened" in his life.

Ms Pointon, from Coventry, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The trial is expected to last for six to eight weeks.

The defendants are: