Armed raid suspect cleared of all charges

FREE man . . . Anthony Morrison

A SUSPECT who evaded airport police and fled to Amsterdam has had all charges against him dropped.

Anthony Morrison was charged with robbery following a violent £20,000 raid at Asda’s Shaw store in October 2011. After leaving the country, he eventually agreed to return in July 2012 — but managed to give officers the slip by pushing aside three members of staff, kicking open a fire door into the baggage reclaim area of terminal three and walking free through the arrivals hall..

Mr Morrison was eventually captured when he was dumped outside North Manchester General Hospital with gunshot wounds a month later.

The 33 year old was kept under police guard in hospital for 10 days while he recovered, then was arrested and charged with robbery.

Last August Jason Butterworth was jailed for more than six years and Michael Ford for nine and a half years after the pair pleaded guilty to the Shaw robbery and a charge of handling stolen goods.

They admitted targeting security guards making a cash delivery to top up ATM machines at the Greenfield Lane store. Shoppers saw one of the two guards ambushed by three men wearing balaclavas and armed with sledgehammers. One of the security men was punched twice in the face, and as the other tried to use his phone to call for help, one of the thugs shouted “Just shoot him.”

Manchester Crown Court heard that three masked men had been involved in the robbery.

Crown Prosecution Service oficers were forced to drop the case against Mr Morrison after admitting they couldn’t prove he was present.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: “The decision to charge the defendant was based on the evidence available at the time.

“The police and CPS continued to make exhaustive enquiries but concluded there was no further evidence linking Anthony Morrison.