Wellingborough shooting trial – ‘What do you do, surrounded by armed police?’
A Wellingborough drug dealer ‘smashed the living daylights’ out of his phone on the porcelain in his bathroom after armed police rounded on his home.
Kieran McGrath tried to destroy a phone and flush a load of drugs down the toilet, a jury heard, as an attempted murder trial continued at Northampton Crown Court Court.
The court was told about the moments armed police arrived at each of the men’s houses to arrest them after three innocent men were shot at in a car at Croyland Park.
McGrath’s co-accused Jake Anderson had earlier given him live running updates as cops with guns arrived at his own house in Stamford Road, Kettering, 12 hours after the two men had been at the shooting.
McGrath, 30, and his ‘close associate’ Jake Anderson, 32,are accused of attempting to murder rival dealer Raheem Bourne by shooting at a car they believed to be his just after midnight on June 29 last year.
After the shooting, they left the scene in Anderson’s mini.
The jury heard text messages sent between Anderson and McGrath in the hours after the, shooting show McGrath was concerned about his Palm Angels jacket and Louis Vuitton sunglasses that were in the boot of Anderson’s car.
Two hours and 20 minutes after the shooting, McGrath sent a text saying: “You just watch what man just f***ing did bro.”
Prosecuting, Andrew Langley KC said: “He’s boasting about what , in his own words, a big man he was.”
‘Armed police here’
At 3.50am, on June 29, Anderson was back in his Stamford Road home, texting McGrath about a police car parked opposite his property. He sent several pictures which were shown to the jury after investigators found them on his phone.
"Feds parked over the road from man for about 40 mins,” he texted McGrath.
Mr Langley said: “They’re concerned the police have already found them and are closing in.”
But the police had not yet worked out that Anderson was involved, and in fact had just stopped by his house to have a drink and do some paperwork.
"They’re still there man, it ain’t a coincidence,” said Anderson. “All sh*ts still in the car man.”
But at 12.49pm, 12 hours after the shooting, armed police were in fact at Anderson’s door.
He texted McGrath: “Armed police here.”
Anderson then furiously started deleting voice notes off his phone, which meant they have been unavailable for the jury to see.
"He’s trying to destroy the evidence,” said Mr Langdale. “He’s very much deleted those messages, all while police are outside.”
Nearby, police found Anderson’s white mini with a Palm Angels puffa jacket hanging out of the back of the boot. When it was examined, both Anderson’s and McGrath’s DNA was found on it. In the car was a bank card belonging to McGrath. There was also gunshot residue on the jacket and in the car.
There were also two pairs of latex gloves containing the men’s DNA.
In police interview, Anderson could give no explanation as to why the items were in his car.
69.7g of high purity cocaine
As soon as Anderson stopped answering his messages, McGrath began to move to a second secret ‘safe’ flat he had rented in Tithe Barn Road, Wellingborough.
"He’s been saying to others that they need to move the operation,” said Mr Langdale.
“Two days later his actual address at Duke Street was raided and the net’s starting to close.”
Officers found a mobile phone in the kitchen, which contained the video that McGrath had taken of Mr Bourne smashing the window of his mini on the night before the shooting.
Detectives were then able to trace McGrath to his flat in town, and surrounded it.
"What do you do, surrounded by armed police?” Mr Langdale asked the jury.
"Do you come out and say ‘what have I done?’
"What Kieran McGrath did was, calm as you like, went to his bathroom, got his phone out and starts to smash it against the porcelain panel.”
McGrath is believed to have flushed the SIM down the toilet.
Later, officers were able to retrieve from the u-bend clear snap bags, 8.22g of MDMA a bag containing 69.7g of high purity cocaine. There was also £4,835 in cash in the property
‘I do fear him’
"That’s what they’re trying to protect,” said Mr Langdale.
"That’s just a tiny, tiny sliver of that drugs operation.”
On June 30, Anderson was interviewed by police, and again on December 4. He indicated he was scared of McGrath, pointing to injuries on his face to demonstrate he had been violent toward him.
"Do you fear him?” he was asked.
"I do fear him, yeah,” he said.
‘The question is not who fired the gun’
In a short speech to the jury, defence barrister for Kieran McGrath, Nneka Akudolu KC, told the court that her client admitted being a drug dealer.
"Kieran McGrath is a drug dealer,” she said.
"But the events that led up to the 29th of June 2025 were not about drugs or about drug rivalry.
"It’s not in dispute that the two men sitting in the dock are friends.
"It’s not in dispute that Mr McGrath was driven by that friend to Maidenhead, and while there it’s not in dispute that he collected a firearm.”
She said that her client also admitted discharging the firearm into an Audi containing three men ‘wholly unconnected’ to this case.
“The only issue that requires reflection is the intent,” she said.
"The question is not who fired the gun, but why was it done.”
She asked the jury to keep an open mind after hearing all the evidence.
‘He does accept’
Patrick Upwood KC, for Anderson, said that his client accepted he was driving the vehicle when the gun was fired, but said he did challenge the interpretation by the prosecution of some messages sent between the men after the shooting.
"The issue for your consideration,” he said to the jury, “is would Jake Anderson know what Kieran McGrath intended to do when he exited the mini and whether he was party to any plan by McGrath.
"It’s not accepted by Mr Anderson he was a drug dealer at the time. He does accept he was a drug user.”
Kieran John McGrath, of Duke Street, Wellingborough, and Jake Benjamin Anderson, of Stamford Road, Kettering, deny the attempted murder of Raheem Bourne and the alternative count of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. McGrath has pleaded guilty to charge of possession of a firearm with intent to cause a person to believe unlawful violence would be used against them. Anderson denies that charge and denies being a drug dealer.
Neither Asriel McLeod or Anaiah Dupont-Spencer are standing trial in relation to this case.
The trial continues.
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