A MAN has gone on trial for his alleged involvement in a £5,000 contract killing, organised after a stash of drugs were stolen from a safe house more than a decade ago.

Andrew Monarch left the United Kingdom and lived on a false passport after Mark Sayer was shot dead on the doorstep of his home near Redcar, east Cleveland, in 1996.

He was extradited from Spain last year after being arrested in October 2005 by Spanish authorities on suspicion of conspiracy to murder Mr Sayer, a court heard.

Four other men were convicted and jailed for their parts in the death of the 22-year-old - including the gunman Karl Henderson and getaway driver Edward Winter.

The killing was organised by Middlesbrough drug dealer Zarin Sherrif after his supplies of cannabis were stolen, Franz Muller, QC, told Teesside Crown Court today.

A fourth man, Joeseph Marshall, was convicted of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent, but cleared of conspiracy to murder.

Sherrif, then aged 33, and of Ayresome Park Road, was convicted of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent.

Winter and recently-freed convict Henderson - recruited by Marshall in July 1996 after a meeting in Blyth, Northumberland - were convicted of murder.

Marshall, from Amble, Northumberland, originally asked Henderson and another pal to meet some friends in Middlesbrough to discuss "business", the court heard.

But when Marshall later took them to a beach and dug up a thick black bin bag containing a gun and cartridges, the other man pulled out and Winter was recruited to drive.

The jury was told that Mr Sayer was assasinated after answering the door at his rented home in Staithes Road, Dormanstown, on the evening of September 1.

Mr Muller said the killer and the driver dumped the weapon - a Winchester pump-action shotgun - near the A66 as they fled north, and abandoned their car in Stockton.

Mr Monarch, who lived in Whorlton Grove, Redcar, at the time and was a friend of Sherrif's, is suspected of picking the pair up and taking them to a Middlesbrough hotel for the night.

Mr Muller told the jury that phone and pager records showed there was contact between Mr Monarch and Sherrif immediately after the murder as well as Sherrif and public call boxes in Stockton.

It was also claimed Mr Monarch received several pager messages from Henderson and Winter's hotel room the following morning - one expressing "a certain amount of pleasure at what had been achieved".

Mr Muller told the jury that Winter was arrested the following day, Henderson was found in Berkshire five days after that, and Sherrif a further three days later.

Mr Monarch's solicitor arranged a meeting with the police the following day, but he failed to show up and was not traced despite "considerable efforts" by detectives.

After finally being found in Spain and arrested by officers from Cleveland Police last July, Mr Monarch told them: "I've had nothing whatever to do with any murder at any time in my life."

Mr Monarch denies conspiracy to murder and the trial - scheduled to last more than two weeks - will continue tomorrow.

3:20pm Wednesday 26th March 2008

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