A 74-year-old carer suffered horrific injuries when he was shot with a crossbow at his remote island home by an attacker hiding in the dark, a murder jury has heard.
Gerry Corrigan, a retired lecturer, was trying to fix a satellite dish when the assault took place at his home near the coastal path in Anglesey, the jury at Mold crown court in north Wales was told.
Terence Michael Whall, 39, a sports therapist, of the village of Bryngwran in Anglesey, denies murder.
Peter Rouch QC, prosecuting, told the jury the attacker must have carried out reconnaissance of the spot and undertaken target practice before the assault.
He said: “The shooter would have been about 10 metres away, probably in the field in front of the house, hiding behind a garden wall or fence.
“Only one bolt was fired – which was accurate and hit its mark. You may think that the shooter was proficient in the use of a crossbow and must have undertaken target practice before killing Mr Corrigan.
“You may also think that the killing would have required planning, and a reconnaissance of the place where the killing was to be done. The killer would want to know the layout of the premises.
“He would want to know where he could wait with his crossbow; maybe how to get Mr Corrigan out of his house; the angle that would be involved with the shot; how far away he would be and the distance he would have to shoot.”
The court was told the bolt passed completely through Corrigan’s body, bruising the heart, and went through his right arm.
Corrigan lived with his partner, Marie Bailey, 64, who was disabled with multiple sclerosis. In effect, he was her carer, the court was told.
They lived at Gof Du, set in 30 acres of land and close to the coastal path. “It isn’t a place that you could simply pass by – to go there, you had to intend to go there,” the prosecutor said.
At about midnight on Good Friday last year, Corrigan’s Sky signal was interrupted and he went outside to look at the dish.
The prosecutor said: “He felt a terrible pain to his body and thought that somehow he had been electrocuted. But he hadn’t been electrocuted. When he left his home to look at the Sky dish, someone was waiting outside, in the dark, armed with a high-powered crossbow.”
Rouch said: “So silent and quick is a crossbow that Mr Corrigan had no idea what had happened to him. All he knew was that he was in terrible pain.”
An ambulance was called and paramedics noticed a crossbow bolt covered in blood on the grass. He was airlifted to hospital in Staffordshire. Corrigan suffered sepsis and gangrene and died on 11 May.
Police found two small pieces of metal from the head of the crossbow bolt outside his home.
The court heard that a Land Rover Discovery belonging to Whall’s partner, Emma Roberts, was found burnt out on 3 June, two weeks after he was questioned by police about his possession of crossbows.
The GPS in the car was destroyed by the fire but information retained by Jaguar Land Rover showed that on the night of 17 April it had travelled to the driveway of Corrigan’s home and then to nearby Porthdafach beach, in what Rouch alleged was a reconnaissance before the killing.
On Thursday 18 April, the car was driven from Whall’s home to Porthdafach beach, where it remained for an hour and a half until 12.42am on 19 April, about 12 minutes after Corrigan was shot, the court heard.
The system showed the boot was opened and closed when the car arrived and before it left.
Rouch claimed Whall interrupted the satellite signal then hid and waited for Corrigan to come out. “When he did so, he callously shot him,” the prosecutor alleged.
The court heard that Whall had owned two crossbows, but claimed he sold one to a stranger earlier in 2019 and the second, bought online in April 2019, was not delivered until after the shooting.
When interviewed by police, Whall said that on the night of the shooting he was with friend Barrie Williams, also known as Baz, who he was having an affair with, the court heard.
He said they had travelled to the beach car park and engaged in sexual activities in fields nearby. But Rouch told the jury that Williams was likely to tell them he had not seen Whall that night.
Whall told police he had never met Corrigan or his partner. The court heard defendant Gavin Jones, who was friends with Whall and shared an interest in martial arts with him, had done work for Corrigan, including cutting the grass at his home.
Whall and co-defendants Darren Jones, 41, Martin Roberts, 34, and Gavin Jones, 36, deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and conspiracy to commit arson in relation to the Land Rover, which Whall claimed had been stolen before it was found burnt out. Roberts and Darren Jones deny arson.
The trial continues.
