In March 2015, the situation for self-confessed gang debt collector David Byron seemed bleak.
The 37-year-old had then been identified as the prime suspect in a brutal double shooting in Lance Close, Everton, where a man named Craig Dures was shot in the face and his father, Karl Dures senior, receive a blow to the thigh.
The stakes were high. Accused of attempting to murder Craig and injuring both men with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, a conviction would have resulted in a probable life sentence.
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The trial turned out to be an extraordinary vision of the Liverpool underworld.
Miraculous survival
The jury was told how Craig and Karl snr had been put in danger thanks to their brother and son, Karl Dures junior. The court learned that Karl jnr was involved in the supply of drugs, but he also struggled with a cocaine addiction and found himself in spiraling debts with the fearsome Manchester gangsters.
The situation came to an end shortly after 11:15 a.m. on April 2, 2014. Craig Dures, his wife, and their baby son were home when they realized a silver Ford Focus was slowly passing in front of them. the house, with a man inside looking into his living room. window.
The jury was told Craig was suspicious, so he got into his wife’s car and drove to the Focus, stopping beside her. Martin Reid, who prosecuted the trial, said the Crown case was that the man inside was David Byron, who was “aggressive” and told Craig that his brother, Karl jnr, must money and that needed to be “fixed”.
Karl Dures jnr
Craig returned home and told his wife he had to leave. He then went out to talk to his father, Karl snr, who lived next door. But the Focus man had returned.
As he got out of the car, the assailant pulled out a gun and fired five times, hitting Craig in the face and Karl snr in the leg. Miraculously for Craig, the bullet passed through his nose and remained at the base of his skull without damaging his brain or spine.
While the two men were bleeding outside their home, the shooter fled with the silver Focus, but only after rolling into a parked car. This collision would be vital to the outcome.
A debt with consequences
After the prosecution exposed his case, Byron himself was called to testify. On the baton, he admitted that he worked as a debt collector for “high-end” drug traffickers and organized gangs, but denied that he was a “rental gunman.”
According to Byron, Karl Dures jnr sold drugs, but his debts “were out of control” and had reached £ 237,000. He said he was called as an “intermediary” and met with Karl jnr and Karl snr on several occasions to establish a “payment plan”.
Lance Close is sealed by police after the shooting of Craig Dures and his father Karl Dures snr in April 2014.
Byron said they had a meeting at the Jumbo Cafe on Priory Road, Anfield on Dec. 13, 2013, with three more people who refused to call. He said that during the meeting, Karl jnr was lying to a man to whom he owed money and as a result he “received some beating”.
Byron told the jury, “It was three or four punches, a couple of kicks. He was on the ground bleeding from the face.” Byron said Karl jnr was taking out “work” (drugs) from a group and using the money he earned selling drugs to pay other gangsters. As he said, Karl Dures jnr was “stealing from Peter to pay Paul.”
He told the jury that the £ 237,000 debt was owed to Manchester-based men, who arranged a meeting with Karl jnr. At that meeting, which Byron also attended, he said Karl jnr was told, “Don’t fuck with our money because we won’t think twice about blowing up your mother’s head.”
However, despite the tension, Byron said he ended up befriending Karl jnr and they went out together for a drink. He even claimed that he helped Karl solve a problem related to his ex-partner and the mother of his children, former X Factor singer Rebecca Ferguson, who was being threatened by a Garston man.
But things got more complicated during the weeks leading up to April 2, 2014 and Karl jnr was harder to contact. The Manchester crew was getting increasingly angry and put “immense pressure” on Byron to force Karl jnr to pay.
He admitted that he had also been “budgeted” to pass on to the gangsters the addresses of the Dures brothers and their mother at a meeting at a Liverpool pub. However, he insisted, “They never told me anything that was going to hurt anyone.”
When his lawyer, Damian Nolan, asked him if he was shooting Karl Dures snr and Craig Dures, he replied, “This didn’t happen at all” and “it wouldn’t make sense.” Byron added, “To be brutally honest, if I shot two people I would be totally open to owing their money.”
Mistakes were made
Whoever the gunman was, it is certainly true that the mistakes of the Merseyside police greatly helped Byron’s defense. The court learned that the investigation found that Byron’s then-wife had a silver Ford Focus, which had been endorsed and thoroughly cleaned after the shooting.
However, police did not check for gunfire and did not tell the jury it had been a “doctorate,” as described by trial judge Clement Goldstone, QC.
This allowed Byron’s legal team to argue that while it had evidence of damage, it was not extensive enough to match the collision between the gunman’s Focus and the parked car that was described by witnesses after the shooting. .
After an eight-day trial and about two hours of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict, not guilty on all charges. Reports from the time describe how Byron’s family, some of whom had been crying in the public gallery, applauded and applauded while he was acquitted.
Byron himself repeatedly shouted “yes” and “thank you very much.” After the jury left the courtroom, Judge Goldstone made clear his displeasure with the course of the investigation.
Addressing the prosecution, he questioned the lack of evidence of gun residue and why the jury was not told the car had been “doctored”. He said: “This would have been an extremely convincing test to link the car to the shooting.”
Judge Goldstone asked Mr Reid: “He is in a position to explain how the fundamental findings were ignored and not served as evidence in the case, apart from the decision not to subject the car to waste testing. of shots? “
Reid said he had just learned of the evidence and that the findings did not appear in any unused material program. Judge Goldstone responded, “It should not have been unused. It should have served as an integral and very important part of the prosecution’s case. The public has a right to know why this potentially valuable piece of evidence was totally ignored by the Crown “.
Merseyside police conducted an internal review of their investigation and found “defects.” The force said it had implemented new procedures and training.
A dubious loan
However, this case was not the only time David Byron’s name came up in connection with the band’s activity. In January 2016, prosecutors spilled over into the businesses of two notorious brothers: Stephen and Peter Clarke.
Stephen Clarke
Originally from Kirkby as Byron, the couple ran an extensive criminal network trafficking cocaine and cannabis to Manchester and Northern Ireland, and were jailed for 26 1/2 years in 2013. The couple had access to a terrible cache of weapons. , including pistols, swords and samurai machetes, hidden in a Southport shelter.
After being convicted, proceedings were initiated to seize their illicit profits under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). Detectives had gathered numerous pieces of evidence against the “dreaded” head of security company Stephen Clarke, including from a listening device covertly placed in his Jaguar car. It was this device that dragged Byron’s name into the box.
During a POCA hearing in Preston Crown Court, prosecuting Nick Johnson, QC, asked Clarke for a £ 100,000 cash loan he had agreed to give to David Byron and a man named Mark Wyatt, which had been recorded arguing. in his car.
Johnson told Clarke he had lent money to “two drug dealers.” Clarke replied that he “knew” that Byron was a drug dealer, but that Wyatt only became one later.
Clarke also claimed that he only became involved in the cannabis part of the drug conspiracy after fighting to recover Byron and Wyatt’s debt, leaving him in financial difficulties.
A “stupid” mistake.
Despite extensive references to his involvement in organized crime in both cases, Byron appeared to have escaped prison. However, it was his involvement in a “stupid” and “reckless” plan, simply to avoid penalty points on his driver’s license, that haunted him again yesterday (Friday).
Byron, now 44 and from Longfellow Close, Kirkby, conspired with the dubious owner of the car rental company Benjamin Rood, 41, to divert notices of fixed penalties after he was quickly caught. August 2016 and February 2017. Byron drove Land Rover vehicles rented by the Rood franchise, Liverpool 4×4 Rental, on both occasions.
Liverpool Crown Court learned that as the rental vehicles were registered in Rood’s business, he was required by law to provide the driver’s details. However, instead of Byron just taking the points and paying the fine, WhatsApp messages retrieved from Rood’s phone revealed extensive conversations about the nomination of an “autumn man.”
Byron admitted the scheme and pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge to pervert the course of justice, while asking the court to consider the 2016 crime.
Damian Nolan, Byron’s new representative, called for clemency because Byron needed treatment for blood cancer and a lack of involvement in the crime since the crimes took place. He told the court: “This is a man who doesn’t need to be told it would have been much easier to just grab the dots.
“For not having received a notice of fixed sanction, here he is on the verge of prison …