Latest on former Denby Dale man Thomas Haigh's trial: Murders were “cynically planned”

A JURY was told that the murder of two drug dealers was “cynically” planned by “allies” who sought to blame each other when the crime was discovered.

In the prosecution’s closing speech, Ross Stone and Thomas Haigh were said to have killed David Griffith and Brett Flournoy, as a joint enterprise.

The bodies of the two men were found buried in their van, which had been set alight, at Sunny Corner, a small holding near St Austell, Cornwall, where Stone lived.

During the trial, prosecutor Paul Dunkels QC, said Griffith, 35, from Plymouth, and Flournoy, 31, from Merseyside, had been killed over drug debts.

Stone, 28, and Haigh, a 26-year-old cage fighter from Denby Dale, each blamed the other for the killing on June 16 last year, but Mr Dunkels said they had worked together.

“Brett Flournoy and David Griffiths were each shot dead at Sunny Corner,” he said.

“They were murdered, the prosecution say, as a result of a joint enterprise of the two defendants and each of them had a different role to play in that joint enterprise.”

Mr Dunkels said Haigh had ambushed and fired the fatal shots, while Stone had provided the gun and cleared up the mess.

He said both men had been involved in the drugs trade, “a business without morals that is inhabited by ruthless people”.

He said Haigh, who had been sent to Cornwall as a minder for Stone, was a man used by Mr Griffith and Mr Flournoy when “there was dirty work to be done.” Mr Dunkels said Stone was a greedy and confident dealer who had brought thousands of pounds worth of cocaine into Cornwall.

He added: “They came together when they realised they were both under the control of Brett Flournoy and David Griffiths and they resented it.”

In his closing speech, Geoffrey Mercer QC, for Stone, told the jury: “There is only one killer in the dock and that is not Ross Stone.”

He said his client was not at Sunny Corner when the shooting took place and the prosecution’s case that he was a secondary party was “at best speculative and, on analysis, simply wrong.”

Both men deny two counts of murder. Stone admits obstructing a coroner by burying the bodies.

The trial continues with closing speeches for Stone and for Haigh and is expected to conclude today.