Bisexual murder charge man's girlfriend on coded Facebook messages which hitman used to kill gay lover in Clayton West layby, court hears

Mar 13 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Christopher Hartley

She alleged that there was some reference to “a door and a hinge” and Large later told her that he had been talking in code with Mullen and it referred to a gun and bullets.

She said Large again explained that Mr Hartley was going to be shot at night in a lay-by.

“I didn’t believe it,” she said.

“I just kept telling him I don’t want to know because I didn’t think it were going to happen.”

Mr Hartley, a 45-yer-old car dealer, was shot dead on a secluded country road near Clayton West last September.

Police found some drugs close to his body and when a bungalow in the grounds of his Tingley home was searched officers discovered a drug-making factory.

The prosecution allege that Large and his 39-year-old friend Mullen, of Farding Square, South Shields, were both involved in the killing.

Mullen is alleged to have been the gunman who shot Mr Hartley in the head and chest.

Miss Mallinson, of Ravensthorpe Road, Dewsbury, said Large told her that the killer would be someone that Mullen knew or maybe someone that a friend of Mullen knew.

Large and Mullen have both denied the murder allegation.

The trial continues.