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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Charlotte Hadfield

Everything David Ungi murder trial has heard so far

David Ungi is standing trial accused of murdering Vinny Waddington seven years after he was shot dead.

The 18-year-old was shot dead after a crash on Banks Lane in Garston on July 14, 2015. Vinny had been the pillion passenger of a motorbike which was struck by an Audi car at around 8.47pm.

One of three men inside the vehicle fired a shotgun out of the passenger side window, striking Vinny in the chest. He was able to run a short distance before collapsing. The rider of the bike, then 21-year-old Francis Humphries, was wounded by the same shotgun blast but survived.

READ MORE: easyJet plane makes emergency landing in Liverpool

The jury has heard Ungi left the UK on a ferry to France the day after the fatal shooting and was not found for seven years. Spanish police spent days scoping out Ungi's hiding place after a tip-off before arresting him at a gym on the Costa del Sol.

Ungi denies murdering Mr Waddington and attempting to inflicting grievous bodily harm against Mr Humphries. He is currently standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court, which is expected to last four weeks.

Here we take a look at everything the jury has been told during the trial so far.

"Gunned down in cold blood"

Peter Glenser KC opened the case for the prosecution, as he told a jury the 18-year-old victim was "gunned down in cold blood" on the evening of July 14 2015.

Jurors heard that "three men were responsible for his murder", with two men - Luke Kendrick and Ryan Bate - having previously been found guilty. Mr Glenser described Ungi as the "third man", adding: "We do not know which of the three men actually possessed the shotgun and pulled the trigger.

"I make it clear that we cannot say that the trigger man was David Ungi himself. But we do say that all three men intended at the very least to play their part in causing really serious harm or killing Vincent Waddington and Francis Humphries.

"Each are responsible for the actions of the other. It was a joint enterprise.

"The argument with the Waddington family was, as you will hear, David Ungi's argument. He was present in the car with the other two - they were all acting together.

"He, David Ungi, knew that at least one of the man in the car had a loaded shotgun. The men were together by arrangement, not coincidence."

The shooting came a day after Mr Waddington's 17-year-old brother Liam had allegedly been involved in an argument with Ungi, then aged 23, at Pro Flex Gym on Wood Street. In a WhatsApp message sent to his girlfriend in the early afternoon of July 13, Vinny said: "Our kid has just had murder with David Ungi in the gym, it's going off."

The following evening, the car and two motorbikes were seen "riding around" Garston and Speke. One witness described hearing an "exchange of words" between the Audi and one bike, which was described by another member of the public as driving "fast and stupidly".

The vehicles then crashed at around 8.45pm, with the red scrambler coming to rest underneath the car. A occupant of the Audi was subsequently said to have got out and shot both Mr Waddington and Francis Humphries, the rider of the motorbike.

The former managed to flee to the garden of a nearby house in the aftermath. He was later taken to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, but died as a result of a shotgun wound to the left-hand side of his chest.

Mr Humphries meanwhile managed to "get himself away from the three men" and was driven away by a friend who happened to be passing the scene in his car. He too attended hospital that evening after suffering "three to four wounds from shotgun pellets", but was not seriously injured and was discharged shortly afterwards.

Ungi's DNA was then discovered on a Lucozade bottle in the rear of the car in the passenger's side. The same night, he was in contact with his brother Michael Riccio as he "started to plan his flight from the United Kingdom to the continent".

The two men drove down to Dover the following morning before boarding a ferry to France. Mr Riccio returned to England two days later.

Mr Glenser said that "not much is known" of Ungi's subsequent movements, but in May 2022 police in Spain received intelligence that he was "hiding out" in a town called Coin on the Costa Del Sol. They "kept watch" on a house for several days before tailing him to a gym on May 5 last year and arresting him before his extradition back to the UK.

Questions over argument at Pro Flex Gym

The deceased's brother Liam Waddington was summonsed to give evidence to the jury via video link on April 25.

Appearing on screen with his long hair tied back and sporting a beard, the witness was asked if he remembered going to the Pro Flex Gym on Wood Street the day before his brother died. But he replied: "No, I don't. Sorry. I'm not saying I didn't, but I can't say I did.

"It was a very traumatic time of my life. I've been diagnosed with PTSD and I've blocked a lot of it out.

"I don't want to do this. There was an arrest warrant issued for me to be here today.

"I don't want to be here. I want to move on with my life, and being here is bringing a lot of things back."

Mr Waddington was questioned as to whether he had "had a disagreement with anybody at any time in that gym", but responded: "No, I'm sorry. I don't recall.

"I know I used to go there, that's the best I can give you. I used to go there seven, eight, nine, 10 years ago."

Mr Waddington said he had stopped attending "shortly after my brother was killed", adding: "That section of my life, I've tried to put behind me. I don't want to think about it, I've tried the best I can.

"When I've been to counselling, they say when you suffer with PTSD you repress things and try to blank a lot of things out. I've been diagnosed with PTSD and I can't recall.

"I used to go there, Vinny died, I no longer go there. Because my brother died, I stopped doing a lot of things after that."

Mr Waddington also said he "did not recall" writing and signing a witness statement in May 2016 giving his account of the incident.

Woman found teenager dying in her front garden

On April 27, jurors were read statements from a couple who had lived at the junction of Banks Road and Banks Lane for nearly 20 years at the time of the incident in 2015.

Paul Hankinson and Olive Smith had been out shopping during the evening before returning home, with the former having been lying down upstairs at around 8.30pm when he heard a "loud bang after a screeching noise".

He described seeing "males in the garden" before Ms Smith went into the garden and shouted "Paul, you'd best phone an ambulance". Mr Hankinson then saw a man outside his house "lying on his front, not saying anything and totally unconscious".

Ms Smith stated that she had been on the computer when she heard "tyres screeching then a loud bang" followed by a "series of noises, like a backfiring exhaust, and male voices shouting". She then looked out of the window and saw "two lads going past".

Her statement added: "I then went out of my front door and immediately saw a male on the floor in the front garden. He was not moving - I thought he was pretending at first, but I couldn't see him breathing."

Ms Smith described herself as being "in a panic", but dialled 999 after being handed a phone by her partner. Paramedics then arrived at the scene after what "seemed like a lifetime".

The court was played a transcript of this call with the emergency services, in which she said: "There's a lad collapsed on me front, he looks in a bad way. I don't know how the heck he's jumped the fence."

Mr Hankinson then took hold of the phone in order to be instructed on how to give chest compressions, and told the operator: "I don't know whether he got threw off the motorbike over the fence. Come on kid."

Another resident, Beverley Jackson, was called to give evidence via video link today. She recounted: "We heard a crash, as if the car had hit either the lamppost or the bollard opposite our house. There was a crack, like a car backfiring.

"My dad said 'that's a shot that, that's a gunshot'. We got up to go and see if there was anything we could do."

Ms Jackson recalled seeing three men exiting the vehicle, one of whom appeared to be carrying a gun after getting out of the front passenger seat. She said of this: "He just took a couple of steps, and it looked like he remembered something and went back to the car and retrieved something.

"He held it tight to his side. It was like a strap hanging down.

"As he approached me, I could see a long barrel. It was tight against his leg."

Ms Jackson then saw a man in a nearby garden, adding: "He raised his hands and he was shouting at me to help. 'Come and help, there's someone in my garden and he's been shot'."

Forensics give evidence

On April 28, jurors heard evidence from a series of forensic scientists who worked on the case.

One, Mandy Wood, said in her statement that Luke Kendrick - who was previously convicted of Mr Waddington's murder - was arrested at around midnight, roughly three hours after the incident, but was not tested for the presence of gunshot residue until 6pm the following day after he "smeared himself with his urine and faeces" in his cell.

But swabs subsequently revealed the presence of a "medium to low level" of gunshot residue. This "supported the view" that he had "recently been exposed to the discharge of a firearm or was in contact with a person or item bearing gunshot residue".

Ms Wood's statement also described how shotgun wadding was recovered from a footpath on Banks Lane and a North Face jacket recovered nearby. Meanwhile, a blood-stained green North Face woollen jumper recovered from the floor of a bedroom in the home of Francis Humphries - who was also shot - contained a "very high level of lead particles".

And gunshot residue present on an "apparent scorch mark" on the driver's side wing mirror of an Audi A3 Quattro involved in the collision was said to be "consistent with a firearm being discharged in very close proximity". Forensic scientist Andre Botha found this to be "consistent with the firearm almost touching the top of the housing when discharged", while the weapon - which he believed to be a 12-gauge shotgun - "could have been fired from the driver's seat", although "other positions in the car are possible".

Crime scene investigator Natalie Pilling told the jury that items recovered from inside the car included a Brazilian mango and mandarin-flavoured bottle of Lucozade from the front nearside footwell and a half-full orange flavour version of the sports drink in the rear nearside footwell. Colleague Lisa Johnston said swabs were taken from the lids, mouthpieces and necks of the two containers and revealed DNA on the latter matching Ungi's - as well as that of a second, unidentified male.

Ungi, who is defended by Caroline Goodwin KC, denies murder and attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm. The trial, before Justice Julian Goose, continues.

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