Overview

• Prosecutor Nigel Power KC told jurors the shooting was a targeted retaliation after a phone used to run the JJ Line drugs business was taken by the victim’s sons.
• Prosecutors say two men confronted Jacqueline Rutter at her front door and shot her with a Grand Power‑style pistol, with one round passing through her hand into her chest.
• CCTV and timeline evidence are said to show the attackers arriving in a stolen black Vauxhall Insignia, fleeing to meet an accomplice, and the car being set on fire minutes later.
• The alleged gunmen are James Byrne and fugitive Preston Connolly, with Barrie Glynn as the Insignia’s driver, Simon Allen and David Harrison providing assistance, and Anna McGinn accused of helping them afterward.
• All defendants deny the charges; the case before Mr Justice Goose is expected to last six to eight weeks, and Connolly will be tried later after traveling to Istanbul in December 2023.