Lawyer at centre of alleged plot to kill him knew accused from pub, court told

A man accused of plotting to kill a prosecutor by paying £5,000 to have him shot using a dark web site named Online Killers Market knew his alleged target from a local pub, a court has heard.

Martin Ready, 41, denies charges of attempting to conspire to murder the victim, 37, between May 29, 2021 and September 15, 2022 by setting up cryptocurrency accounts, using a dark web site, paying £5,071.24 in Bitcoin, and instructing for the man to be shot and where he could be found.

Ready has lodged a special defence of lacking criminal responsibility.

A joint minute of agreed evidence read to the jury at the High Court in Glasgow states Ready set up an account on the Online Killers Market website under the name “HarryBrown”, and that he set up accounts with two London-based cryptocurrency firms, and later transferred payment to the admin of Online Killers Market.

On September 4, 2022 he downloaded an image of the victim on to his mobile phone, which was shown to the court.

Giving evidence on Friday, the victim who works as a procurator fiscal depute, said he became aware of the police investigation during a work night out in September 2022, and said he was “bewildered” to hear of the alleged conspiracy.

He said he worked in his family’s pub in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, until 2014 when he went to university, and that Ready would come in and order coffee.

He was shown a photograph which was found on Ready’s phone, and told the court it had been his Instagram profile picture.

Prosecutor Erin Campbell asked if he knew the accused.

He said: “Yes I do. He used to come into the pub that I worked in many years ago in Coatbridge. I’m also a friend of his cousin. It’s my family’s pub.”

He told the court he was “stunned and shocked” when police told him of their investigation into the alleged conspiracy.

Ms Campbell said: “Do you have any indication as to why Martin Ready would take steps to have you assassinated?”

He said: “Absolutely none whatsoever.”

Defending, Brian McConnachie KC asked the victim if he could recall Ready drinking in the pub, during cross-examination.

He said: “To my recollection he wouldn’t ever drink alcohol. He would drink coffee. It was a busy bar and it was kind of irritating having to make the coffee.”

Mr McConnachie asked him if he knew two named families from Coatbridge, and the victim said he was aware of them.

He was asked if he had any involvement in money laundering for either family, and he said: “Absolutely not.”

The court heard the alleged plot was snared by an investigative journalist who was producing a documentary on the dark web, and who alerted the Met Police, who informed Police Scotland.

Detective Sergeant Karen Murray, who led the investigation at Coatbridge CID, said Ready’s house was raided and his mobile phone was seized after the tip-off – with the phone showing searches for a website, hire-a-hitman.pw – with a webpage shown to the jury portraying a masked sniper.

It offered a list of “the most trusted killers” at the top of the webpage, with Online Killers in the number one position, and advertised: “Killing an important person with bodyguards,” starting at 60,000 US dollars (£46,000).

A message sent by user HarryBrown in February 2022 titled Order: “Simple shoot and run”, described the victim as an “extremely soft target”, adding: “It should be a nice easy job.”

An exchange about Bitcoin transactions was shown to the jury, along with a conversation about social media sites belonging to the victim showing his image.

A report from September 5, 2022 showed £5,071.24 was paid into a Bitcoin account.

Messages from a forum from the same month showed an exchange between users expressing interest in the commission, titled: “UK job soft target $6k. Target’s daily routine is known. Excellent strike point available. Target unaware of threat. Target is extremely soft.”

On September 15 a user, MrMortis, replied: “The strike point is never decided by a customer, we always plan everything ourselves but let’s discuss if still pending.”

On September 21, another user, Antibiotic, replied: “Let me know details. We can do it.”

The trial, which is expected to last five days, continues before Lady Hood.