iPad submerged 5 years in London's River Thames helps unlock murder plot
(NEXSTAR) – The iPad was covered in dark mud after five years at the bottom of England's longest river, the Thames, but it was the chip inside that helped police crack a five-year-old murder plot.
The case dates back to July 11, 2019 when six bullets slammed through back doors and windows of an upscale East London home, striking a 45-year-old man standing in the kitchen, nearly killing him. That man, identified by the BBC as a rival named Paul Allen, was left paralyzed after a bullet struck him in the spinal cord.
'It is only for the intervention of police first responder and medical professionals that the victim wasn't killed,' said Detective Superintendent Matt Webb, who led the investigation. 'This attack may look like the plot to a Hollywood blockbuster but the reality is something quite different. This was horrific criminality.'
As a result of the investigation, on Monday, a jury found Daniel Kelly, 46, and brothers Stewart and Louis Ahearne, 46 and 36 years of age, respectively, guilty of shooting a man inside an East London home in 2019.
London's Metropolitan Police say the trio surveilled Allen for weeks before Kelly and Louis Ahearne snuck into the garden of a home that overlooked Allen's rental, just before bullets rang out at 11:09 p.m.
It would take detectives five years, however, to discover what the three men had used to track Allen.
What started as an investigation into a would-be murder would grow to involve a museum heist, a robbery at a luxury apartment and international charges.
In the weeks after the shooting, detectives made a number of breakthroughs that would allow them to charge Kelly and the Ahearnes.
Lab tests confirmed that DNA found on a fence of the neighboring home, from where police believe the shots were fired, was a match for Kelly and Louis Ahearne.
Bullets found inside the home, along with bullet casings in the garden, were consistent with a Glock SLP handgun. Police found the same type of gun, with an added laser sight, while searching Kelly's address weeks after the shooting.
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Using license plate recognition technology and footage from CCTV cameras, detectives linked the rented car Stewart Ahearne allegedly drove to the East London home to a burglary at a home in Sevenoaks, an affluent town in Kent, the same evening as the shooting. A call to the car company eventually confirmed that Ahearne had rented it.
As detectives continued to gather evidence, they also started working with law enforcement in Switzerland, where burglars had made off with historic artifacts from the Museum of Far Eastern Arts in Geneva a month before the shooting.
The crooks had used a sledgehammer, angle grinders and crowbars to force their way into the museum, shattering glass casings and making off with several Ming Dynasty-era antiques valued at nearly 4 million dollars, according to the BBC.
Authorities said were able to tie the men to the burglary after Stewart Ahearne cut his stomach on the jagged hole they left in the front door, leaving DNA at the scene. Louis Ahearne was also caught on camera taking videos of the interior and exterior of the museum the day before.
The Ahearnes were extradited for trial in Switzerland and ultimately convicted in January, 2024, before they were sent back to stand trial for the Allen shooting.
Shortly after they were returned to the United Kingdom but with months before the start of their trial, the BBC reports that Louis Ahearne included a noteworthy detail in his defense statement that likely sealed the guilty verdict.
He recounted driving the hired car and said he hoped surveillance cameras showed him 'getting some air' while Kelly continued in the direction of the River Thames.
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Detectives initially theorized that the men were trying to dispose of a gun, Det. Supt. Webb said. What a search crew found instead was the iPad.
Detectives found evidence that Kelly and the Ahearnes had been using the device to track a bug affixed to Allen's car. The sim card also linked Kelly to the Ahearnes, thanks to the call data, as well as Kelly's email account to purchases of multiple burner phones detectives said were used to discuss the plot.
'I can't repeat the words I used but my jaw dropped,' Webb told the BBC. 'What a beautiful piece of the puzzle to put together.'
Sentencing in the case is set for Friday, April 25.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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