Gang dubbed ‘three musketeers' chased dog walker and stabbed him to death, court hears
CCTV footage played to jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court showed 30-year-old Kieran Shepherd, with his pet on a lead, being chased by the three men in broad daylight in Great Baddow near Chelmsford in Essex last year.
The chase, shown in footage, started at 12.24pm on October 15.
Mr Shepherd was found lying on the floor at around 12.30pm by a cleaner who had been working in a nearby block and dialled 999.
Mr Shepherd was pronounced dead at the scene in Meadgate Avenue at 1.22pm that day.
Joseph Dawe, 20, of Greenland Gardens, Great Baddow, Zack O'Keeffe, 20, of Stafford Green, Langdon Hills, Basildon, and 20-year-old Harrison Carpenter, of Ben Wilson Link, Springfield, all deny murder and are on trial.
Tracy Ayling KC, prosecuting, said Mr Shepherd was 'clearly caught by the three men and shortly afterwards he was found dead, stabbed in the back twice with a knife'.
She said the knife was 'large' and the force used was such that the depth of the wound was 13 to 15 centimetres, going through his left lung and 'into his heart coming out the other side of it'.
Ms Ayling said the prosecution case is that the three defendants are 'jointly responsible'.
'One person may have delivered the fatal blows but the prosecution case is the three are jointly liable as they were acting together in a joint attack,' she said.
She continued: 'You will hear the defendants called themselves the three musketeers.'
Cleaner Holly Duffett, who dialled 999, said she saw three men run across the street and the man in the middle was putting a knife into the waistband of his trousers, Ms Ayling said.
In footage of the call played in court on Tuesday, Ms Duffett said a man had a 'massive shank', adding: 'I don't know if they've just stabbed him or something.'
CCTV footage was played of the three men in a newsagents at 12.21pm, shortly before the stabbing, and at Carpenter's grandmother's address in the village of Stock afterwards, from 1.10pm.
In a statement read by the prosecutor, Carpenter's girlfriend Olivia McElvaney said she was with Carpenter in Chelmsford on October 15.
She said the pair were sitting on a bench when Carpenter received a phone call and O'Keeffe, who was driving a car, and Dawe, who was a passenger in the vehicle, met with them.
'They call themselves the three musketeers,' Ms McElvaney said in her statement, summarised by the prosecutor.
Ms Ayling said Ms McElvaney 'knew Zack O'Keeffe was a drug dealer – she said he didn't hide the fact'.
'Possibly the plan was to get some food but suddenly Zack stopped the car as if he had seen someone he knew,' said Ms Ayling, summarising Ms McElvaney's evidence.
She said the three men got out of the car and they were gone for around half an hour.
'When they got back in Zack drove off immediately,' Ms Ayling said.
'She (Ms McElvaney) said Zack kept saying 'shut up, shut up'.'
She said she thought there was blood on Carpenter's jeans and she said she thought a knife in a sheath was passed to the back of the car.
'There was also talk between the defendants of the need to burn clothes,' Ms Ayling said.
Ms Ayling said that the men went into some woods in Stock and later got a lift to a caravan in Clacton on Sea.
She said Carpenter attended a police station and handed himself in on October 16, and O'Keeffe and Dawe 'weren't located until October 18'.
The prosecutor said Ms McElvaney had also gone to the caravan at Clacton, and later gave a statement to police about what was said there.
Ms McElvaney was asked by police: 'Did they say it was them that was there when Kieran got stabbed and that they were the group responsible?'
Ms Ayling said: 'Her answer was yes.'
She continued: 'She (Ms McElvaney) said Joe and Harrison had a fight with Kieran but Zack O'Keeffe stabbed him apparently twice in the back.'
Ms McElvaney said that O'Keeffe said it 'had to be done', according to the prosecutor.
'The reason she said it had to be done, according to Olivia, was he (Mr Shepherd) had pulled a knife on a 14-year-old at some time in the past,' Ms Ayling said.
'Zack O'Keeffe said in stabbing Mr Shepherd he was doing the police's job for them.'
The trial continues.
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