A BOUNCER has been found guilty by a jury of murdering a Chester debt collector.
Scott Davidson, 23, originally from Elton, was found guilty of murdering Martin Ithell, 49, of Robinsons Croft, Boughton Heath, following a five week trial at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.
The jury did not reach a verdict for his former fiancée and co-accused Rachael Horton, 19, who worked at Sleepland Beds in Deeside.
After 25 hours and 55 minutes of deliberation, the jury – which was made up of six men and six women – told the court that 10 of the 12 jurors had found Davidson guilty of murder after shooting Mr Ithell on March 11.
Wearing a blue jumper, a white shirt, trousers and his glasses hooked over his collar, Davidson, who lived at Hawthorne Road, Frodsham, showed no emotion when the verdict was read out.
Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, warned the public gallery not to react to the verdict in an effort to keep order in the court.
Judge Goldstone is expected to sentence Davidson when the court reconvenes later today.
As the jury could not reach a verdict on Horton they were dismissed and thanked by Judge Goldstone for “being of great assistance to the administration of criminal justice in this court”.
It will be decided today whether or not Horton will face a retrial.
The jury reached their decision to convict Davidson of murder after more than a month of hearing legal arguments, listening to witnesses for both the prosecution and defence and seeing more than 40 items of evidence, as well as a huge bundle of photographs and maps of the crime scene at Hawthorne Road, Frodsham, where Davidson lived.
Davidson, represented by Richard Pratt QC, denied murder throughout the case, claiming that he had “accidentally” shot Mr
Ithell but says he acted in self-defence.
Davidson owed Mr Ithell £26,000 after a series of loans which swelled due to high interest rates.
A court heard during the trial how Davidson had taken on the loan from a man he claimed was his “friend” after they had met while working on the doors at a number of popular nightspots in Chester city centre.
However, Davidson claimed he had become increasingly worried about the mounting debt and had planned to perform an armed robbery using an imitation hand gun, which was later found at his home, in a bid to raise the funds to pay Mr Ithell.
But text messages during the trial showed how Mr Ithell was making several attempts to recover some of the debt and Davidson had arranged for the men to meet at the home he had previously shared with Rachael Horton.
The Crown, led by prosecutor Michael Chambers QC, said Davidson lured his victim to the house and had planned to kill him using a gun he had taken from his father’s house.
Mr Ithell, who worked as a commercial debt collector, had bled to death and was found on the back seat of his BMW car outside Blacon Police Station.
Despite initially admitting in a police statement to the stabbing, Horton, of Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port, later denied the stabbing, claiming she had lied to protect the man she loved.