A MISSING Merseyside man was tied up on plastic sheeting and battered to death with a lump hammer then dumped in a Runcorn canal, a court heard. Jurors were told that Paul Morson, who vanished more than a year ago and whose body was never found, was killed by a friend and two other men who then stole his safe. But one of the accused, 59-year-old Raymond Brierly, said he killed Mr Morson in self defence after he attacked him with a pair of scissors, later dumping his body in the Manchester Ship Canal. The 32-year-old’s body was never found and he was last seen alive on June 8 last year. Liverpool Crown Court heard how in the days leading up to his death Mr Morson asked his brother if he knew where to get a gun. Neil Flewitt QC, prosecuting, said Fay Lacy, who lived with Mr Morson at Spinners Lane, St Helens, believed he had put as much as £50,000 into co- defendant John Burns’ business I Security and was annoyed that it was not being repaid. She also said Mr Morson, known as ‘Birdy’, had been growing cannabis with his occasional boss Burns, 34, and Burns’ friend Brierly at the latter’s house in Whiston. Mr Flewitt said: “Although his body has not been found, it is the prosecution case that Paul Morson was, on the day of his disappearance, murdered at Ray Brierly’s home address by all three defendants acting together.” Mr Flewitt said third defendant Scott Callaghan, 34, later told several people a version of what happened when he visited Brierly’s home Church Lodge, in Windy Arbor Road, Whiston, with Burns. He said: “Once inside the house, he heard screams because a lad who worked for John Burns called Birdy was getting battered. “He went into a room and saw a lad tied up and blood everywhere. “Ray told him to hit the lad with a hammer because both Ray and John had hit the lad with a hammer and they didn’t want Scott Callaghan to ‘grass them up’. “He then ran out, jumped in the (Mr Morson’s) van, drove to Crewe and dumped the van somewhere.” Callaghan also told a girlfriend, Diane Hurley, that he saw Mr Morson lying on plastic with ‘his head smashed in’ and Burns repeatedly shoving his face in a water bucket. Mr Flewitt said: “It is the prosecution case that Scott Callaghan told some but not all of the truth. “If, as he claimed, he had been paid £2,000 and promised a further £10,000, then he must have performed a valuable service for whoever was giving him the money. “It is the prosecution case that, in order to earn such a large sum of money, Scott Callaghan must have taken part in the murder of Paul Morson.” He said all three defendants came into money at the time Mr Morson died and a safe went missing from his bedroom. He said Burns gambled £3,700 at a Liverpool casino and Brierly tried to pay off loans while Mr Morson’s body was lying in his house. Brierly, Burns – also known as John Stickland or ‘Sticko’ – of Kipling Avenue, Huyton, and Callaghan, of Dalemeadow Road, Knotty Ash, all deny murder. Callaghan also denies perverting the course of justice by driving Mr Morson’s Kangoo van away from the scene of the alleged murder and dumping it in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire. The court heard spots of Mr Morson’s blood were found on furniture in Brierly’s house, consistent with wet blood being struck by a hammer. Brierly denied knowing Mr Morson but later admitted arguing with him after refusing to allow him to use his house as a cannabis factory. He said Mr Morson threatened to disfigure his wife and then attacked him with scissors, forcing him to kill him in self defence with a bar stool and a hammer. Brierly told police Callaghan and Burns turned up later and Burns said Mr Morson’s ‘associates’ would kill him if they found out what happened so he wrapped his body, which had a chisel sticking out of his chest, in plastic sheeting and weighted it with breeze blocks then put it in water near the Silver Jubilee Bridge. (Proceeding) | 
Article
