Friends ‘gave order to gun down father’’
Reporter: Andrew Rudkin
Date published: 17 November 2011
TWO friends of jailed identical twins caged for killing a father-of-two on his doorstep, are alleged to have given the fatal instruction to shoot, a jury heard.
The trial of Damien Green (30) and Craig McKenzie (28), who are both accused of murdering Amran Khan in Glodwick on the evening of September 18, 2009, opened at Manchester Crown Court yesterday.
Brett and Jordan Francis (27) of Birch Avenue, Chadderton, were both convicted of murder by a jury in March last year for their involvement in the shooting.
The twins were passengers in a stolen BMW car, which pulled up outside of Mr Khan’s house on Nugget Street. One of them fired three shots — two of which struck the victim. Mr Khan, known as Manny, suffered a fatal wound to his chest.
Yesterday Paul Reid QC, prosecuting, told the jury there were four men in the stolen vehicle at the time of the shooting — but defendants Green and McKenzie were not the other two occupants.
Mr Reid said: “Their involvement was to get the twins to do the shooting, provide the guns, and give them advice and instruction.”
It is alleged Green, of Aldwyn Crescent, Hazel Grove, and McKenzie, of Parkside Road, Moss Side, spoke to the twins a few hours before the incident about how the shooting should be carried out.
After the killing the twins fled to Runcorn and tried to kill themselves in a river, which resulted in their arrest. McKenzie and Green, who were both shown in court partying in Ibiza with the Francis brothers, were arrested earlier this year.
Both men deny murder. (Proceeding)
