Anna McGinn is accused of picking up her boyfriend and his friend following the murder of Jackie Rutter
16:00, 18 Dec 2025Updated 07:43, 20 Dec 2025
James Byrne, David Harrison, Simon Allen and Barrie Glynn are all charged with the murder of Jacqueline ‘Jackie’ Rutter
A woman accused of helping her boyfriend escape after he allegedly shot a mum-of-six dead on her own doorstep broke down in tears as she said: “I never thought he would do something like that.” Anna McGinn is accused of picking up her boyfriend Preston Connolly and his friend James Byrne following the shotgun murder of 53-year-old Jackie Rutter in Moreton, Wirral, on October 30 2022.
The murder was allegedly a “revenge attack” after Ms Rutter’s sons Peter and Steven reportedly stole a mobile phone which Byrne and Connolly had been using to conduct their drug dealing business.
Byrne and Connolly were said to have carried out the shooting on Meadowbrook Road the following day, with another man, Barrie Glynn, acting as their getaway driver.
Simon Allen allegedly torched the stolen car used by the killers, having seemingly performed reconnaissance missions on key locations on the evening of October 29. David Harrison’s home was allegedly used as a base of operations on the night.
Connolly, also known as Paddy, fled the country for Turkey in the aftermath of the incident. His then-girlfriend Anna McGinn appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today, accused of assisting an offender in connection with the fatal shooting.
She admitted going out in her Mercedes to meet with Connolly on the night of October 29 2022, but claimed it was simply to collect her house key, which she had accidentally left in Connolly’s coat pocket following a party in Toxteth the night before.
She also admitted picking up both Connolly and Byrne in Heswall following the fatal shooting in the early hours of October 30, but said she had no knowledge of the murder at the time.
Crying, she told the court: “He just made me believe he hadn’t done anything. Looking back I wish I walked away the day I got arrested, but when you’re in that mental headspace it’s very hard to walk away.
“I questioned him all the time and he would just say ‘why don’t you believe me’? I just never thought he would do something like that. Yeah he sold drugs, but committing a murder is totally different to selling drugs. I never thought that of him. It’s not the Paddy I know. The Paddy I know is a party animal who loved that scene, not going out and shooting someone.”
The court was told McGinn said she did not know Connolly sold crack cocaine or heroin, but that he had told her he sold cannabis.
The court saw McGinn and Connolly had exchanged regular calls until the morning of October 29 2022, when Connolly’s phone went inactive at 6.23am, and was not used again until after the murder. McGinn did not attempt to contact him at all during this time.
On the night of October 29, McGinn said she received a call from Connolly using an unknown number, and arranged to pick up her house key from him outside St Peter’s Catholic Primary School in Noctorum. He arrived in a white Peugeot.
McGinn said she couldn’t remember whether she had asked her boyfriend what he was doing at the time. She said: “I just remember him coming to the passenger’s side and questioning me on where I was, who I’d been with and why I hadn’t told him I was going out. James Byrne came over to see if I was OK.”
Prosecutor Nigel Power called back to the evidence of alleged “getaway driver” Barrie Glynn, who said Connolly “came back from (McGinn’s) cay with the keys and opened the Vauxhall Insignia”, this being the car used to transport the killers to the scene of the shooting.
McGinn said: “I know you’re trying to suggest I dropped off the Insignia key but I never did that. I never thought he would get me involved in something like this. But I didn’t drop the key off.”
She said Connolly later called her in the early hours of October 30 to pick him and James Byrne up from Heswall, which she did. She said: “I didn’t pay any attention to how he got in the car. I was just angry he got me out of bed; he was trying to apologise to me and James was with him as well.
“I was probably asking where they had been. I can’t remember what I had asked him. I was probably more angry that he had got me out of bed and I was having to drop James off as well, but that was a regular thing to do and I just had to do it.”
McGinn dropped Byrne off at his address on Thornton Road, Birkenhead, before returning to Liverpool, where she said Connolly spent the night at either his mum’s or nan’s house.
Later that day, the two travelled to Chester, where McGinn had booked a room at the Leonardo hotel. They entered the room and did not leave until the following day. She denied that Connolly was “lying low”, saying: “I feel he wouldn’t have wanted to be seen on CCTV. He would have been seen on the cameras walking into somewhere. That was just the way we were – we booked at the last minute and always late.”
McGinn was arrested in February 2023, when she and Connolly were on a romantic Valentines Day getaway at Formby Hall golf club. She gave “no comment” answers in police interviews. She said: “I was scared. I had never been arrested for anything before. It was scary.”
The trial continues