Forensic Science Service assists in the conviction of six men for the murder of Hell’s Angel biker

Firearms experts at the Forensic Science Service provided vital intelligence to police during the investigation into the murder of Hell’s Angel biker Gerry Tobin.

Tests carried out by scientists at the FSS’ Northern Firearms Unit proved vital in assisting Warwickshire Police to piece together the sequence of events after Mr Tobin was shot as he travelled along the M40 motorway.

The Forensic Science Service was initially called out by Warwickshire Police to carry out a scene examination; a major challenge as the whole crime scene stretched for over one mile down the motorway.

The southbound carriageway was closed down by police and the body of Mr Tobin examined in situ by FSS firearms expert Phil Rydeard. Phil looked at the bullet entry and exit wounds in order to make a judgement about the trajectory of the bullet.

This analysis revealed that Mr Tobin had been shot from behind from a moving vehicle. Examination of Mr Tobin’s motorbike showed that this had also been hit by a bullet, leaving a 7.5mm hole.

No cars were allowed to leave the area before their tyres had been examined for evidence of any cartridge cases caught in the tread.
 
After a painstaking search of the area, a .32 cartridge case was found and recovered for analysis back at the FSS’ Northern Firearms Unit in Manchester. This case was found to be from a self-loading pistol.

The FSS also attended the post-mortem the next day when a 9mm bullet was recovered from the victim.  The Forensic Science Service routinely attends post-mortems in order to offer advice and intelligence to police and pathologists about the origins of bullets extracted from victims.

Mr Rydeard said: “In this case, the bullet recovered from Mr Tobin bore marks that were overwhelmingly typical of the marks that are caused by revolvers.

“On the other hand, the cartridge case recovered from the scene clearly came from a self-leading pistol, meaning we were able to ascertain that at least two different guns must have been fired.

“Examinations of Mr Tobin’s motorbike showed that a hole slightly larger than 7.5mm had been made in the rear mudguard. I believe that this was caused when a bullet penetrated the metal mudguard and skirted through the tread of the bike’s rear wheel. It was clear that more than one shot had been fired, and this suggested to us that more than one assailant was involved.

“Both the angle that the bullet had entered and exited Mr Tobin and the hole in the rear mudguard confirmed the initial belief that shots had been fired from behind.”

Mr Rydeard added: “We searched our open case file to ascertain whether the bullets recovered matched to any others which had been used in crime. There were no matches and as no guns have ever been recovered in relation to this crime, we were not able to match any weapon to the bullets.

“However, the intelligence we offered to police was undoubtedly key in helping them to understand how Mr Tobin came to be killed. There were very few witnesses to the offence, but the recovered bullets and injuries to Mr Tobin told their own story.”

Simon Turner, 41, Dane Garside, 42, Karl Garside, 45, Malcolm Bull, 53, Dean Taylor, 47, and 46-year-old Ian Cameron were all found guilty of murder on November 24. Sean Creighton, 44 had earlier pleaded guilty to murder.