Preston Connolly is said to have fled to Turkey after the shooting of 53-year-old Jackie Rutter
Police at the scene on Meadowbrook Road in Moreton, Wirral(Image: Liverpool Echo)
A man suspected of the murder of Jackie Rutter visited a takeaway in Liverpool city centre hours after the nan was shot dead. The mum-of-six and grandma-of-five died aged 53 after being shot on the doorstep of her own home on Meadowbrook Road in Moreton, Wirral, after her sons allegedly “ripped off” or “taxed” drugs dealer James Byrne and Preston Connolly.
The former has gone on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of her murder, alongside Simon Allen, Barrie Glynn and David Harrison. A fifth defendant, Connolly’s then girlfriend Anna McGinn, is meanwhile charged with assisting an offender in connection with the fatal shooting.
Nigel Power KC told a jury of seven men and five women during the prosecution’s opening yesterday, Wednesday: “Nearly three years ago, now on the 30th of October 2022, a lady called Jacqueline Rutter opened the front door to her home address. She was shot in the chest with a gun, which either was or was similar to a Grand Power self-loading pistol, and she died at the scene.
“Jackie Rutter, as she was always known, was a 53-year-old grandmother. But this was no case of mistaken identity. This was a targeted revenge attack in the heat of a dispute over drugs.
“During the trial, you will see CCTV. Three men arrived at her address in a black Vauxhall Insignia car. It was a stolen car. Two passengers were in the back. They got out of the back of the car. They went to Mrs Rutter’s front door.
“When she answered, she was shot twice. One shot missed, one went through her right hand and into her chest. The two men who had gone to her front door got back into the Vauxhall Insignia. They went to a nearby street, where they were met by a fourth man. He had been waiting for them with two other vehicles, a silver Ford C-Max and a Yamaha motorbike. Within minutes of the shooting, the Vauxhall Insignia was alight.
“The two men who got out of the car to kill Jackie Rutter were the first defendant in this case, James Byrne, and another man called Preston Connolly. They were involved in a drugs business together and were taking revenge because, the day before, the phone that they used to run the drugs business had been taken from them by Jackie Rutter’s sons, Steven Rutter and Peter Rutter.
“Preston Connolly fled the country. He went to Istanbul from Manchester on the 30th of December 2023. He will have to be tried at a later date, but he is an important figure in the case and you will hear quite a lot about him.
“The driver of the Insignia was Barrie Glynn. He too was a drugs user. He bought drugs from Preston Connolly and James Byrne, and he also helped with the business. Simon Allen and David Harrison provided valuable assistance to the shooters.
“They too were employees of the drugs business, the JJ Line, as it was known. You will see that they played important roles in what happened. Mr Allen was the person who set fire to the Insignia car
“Anna McGinn, the fifth defendant, was Preston Connolly’s girlfriend. After the murder, she gave lifts to James Byrne and Preston Connolly to help them get away from the locality of the murder and to help them avoid arrest.”
McGinn was said to have collected the two men from the Heswall area shortly after 1am on the night in question, around an hour after the shooting, before dropping Byrne at his home on Thorburn Road in New Ferry. Her Mercedes A-Class then continued onwards through the Mersey Tunnels, with Connolly seen visiting Archie’s on Ranelagh Street in the city centre shortly before 2am in order to purchase fast food.
They then travelled onwards to his home on Wheatfield Close in Netherley. The couple subsequently stayed the following night at the Leonardo Hotel in Chester, a booking which was made by McGinn.
Glynn was meanwhile seen walking away from his home on Westway in Heswall in the hours after the shooting wearing a “large backpack” before returning in possession of a dog lead but no dog. Mr Power said of this: “In interview, he said this. ‘You’re gonna ask where the dog is, aren’t you? This will take a little bit of explaining’. You will hear his explanation in due course. You will perhaps bear in mind that there was a gun and clothing to dispose of, and that he was out for an hour and 15 mins with a rucksack on his back.”
The 46-year-old was later said to have made a phone call to a scrap metal company before, on November 1, Allen and Harrison visited A1 Autos in Ellesmere Port and sold the Ford C-Max for scrap at a price of £300. Three days later, Byrne then changed his phone number after “making sure the car was disposed of”.
Under interview following his arrest on March 2, 2023, the 23-year-old told detectives: “It doesn’t bother me. I’m sat here, I’m not bothered in the slightest, ‘cos I know for a fact I’ve got nothing to do with nothing.
“Yous can do all what you’re doing. You’re wasting your own time. I’m a 21-year-old kid who has a little polly joint, and that’s it. So you can think that I run round and f***ing shoot people and sell all this and that. You think whatever you want, yeah, but I know, personally, myself, I’ve not done nothing like that, and, if I did, I wouldn’t be sitting here like this, the way I am. Alright, so you just waste your time and carry on mate.”
Allen was initially arrested on November 14, 2022 but made no comment at this stage. However, during a subsequent interview on January 12, 2023, he “described the impact of his mother’s death on his own mental health and lifestyle” and his “interactions with two drug dealers”.
Named as James Byrne and a man called Liam Carson, they were alleged to have “manipulated his vulnerability” and “operated out of his home, turning it into a drug stash and causing chaos in his life”. Allen also admitted having transported drugs to Shotton in North Wales previously.
Mr Power added: “Ultimately, he accepted that he was involved in a violent incident, to the extent where he was instructed to burn a car after a shooting. He said that he was asked if he wanted to do a job for half an ounce of heroin.
“He said that he witnessed the aftermath of the shooting, where James Byrne told him he had ‘just done two in the chest’. He denied knowing that there was going to be a shooting. He said that he was given two bottles of petrol and told to burn the car.”
Allen went on to say during a further round of questioning the following day: “Apparently, it was something to do with one of the sons of Jackie Rutter, who had apparently done something to them. He’d tried to have them off or something or other, set them up, and that’s why this has taken place.”
Interviewed again on March 30 that year, the 55-year-old added that Ms Rutter’s son had “had off almost every dealer in the area”, leaving them “in fear”. He also reported that Connolly’s hand had been cut during the incident in which the JJ Line phone was supposedly stolen.
Allen was questioned for a final time on October 24, 2023, at which stage he claimed that Byrne had attended his home after the shooting and “bathed in petrol”. Mr Power described this as a “technique used to get rid of gunshot residue”.
Harrison answered no comment when first interviewed in February 2023 but told detectives the following month that he had “picked up Allen and other individuals from various locations and driven them to different places” but “wasn’t involved in the murder and was not present at the scene”, adding: “I’ve picked him up. I didn’t know he f***ing killed somebody.”
Glynn meanwhile told detectives following his arrest on November 15, 2022 that he “did not know anything about the Ford C-Max’s involvement in the murder”. While he “admitted being a drug user and said he used methadone”, he “denied any involvement in drug supply or organised crime”.
Interviewed again in January 2023, he stated that he was “asked to drive a group that included James Byrne and Preston Connolly to various locations, culminating in a confrontation that resulted in gunfire”. He reported that they had earlier stopped in woodland near to Arrowe Park Hospital for 20 minutes and was “confused about the nature of the task he was undertaking”, but “recalled seeing James Byrne with a gun and hearing shots fired before being instructed to drive away”.
During a further round of questioning in November 2023, Glynn said that he “remembered picking up Preston Connolly for drug deals on the day before the murder” before being “directed by James Byrne and Preston Connolly to drive to the victim’s house”. He then “saw them put on ski masks and arm themselves with a gun before the shooting occurred”.
Allen, of no fixed address, Byrne, also of no fixed address, Glynn and 59-year-old Harrison, of Old Meadow Road in Pensby, deny murder, manslaughter, possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger and arson, which relates to the stolen Vauxhall Insignia. McGinn, aged 26 and of Frankby Stiles, Frankby, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of assisting an offender. The trial, before Mr Justice Goose, continues, and is expected to last for six to eight weeks.