‘Duggan gun’ trial: Victim was ‘trying to set up drugs deal’ in the weeks before his death

Mark Duggan was shot dead by police after picking up a gun from Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, the court heard.

by Court Reporter Monday, October 1, 2012
8:01 PM

Mark Duggan was trying to set up a drugs deal in the weeks before he was shot dead by police, a court heard today.

Police officers at the scene of the shooting in which Mark Duggan died. Picture: Tony Gay

Mr Duggan was arranging a deal with his friend Kevin Hutchinson-Foster and another person called “Mo” in the month before his death, it is alleged.

Hutchinson-Foster, 30, told Snaresbrook Crown Court how Mr Duggan had offered him the chance to get involved in the deal.

Regular cannabis user Hutchinson-Foster, of no fixed abode, is currently on trial accused of supplying Mr Duggan with the gun he is alleged to have been wielding before he was shot.

He denies passing the modified BBM Bruni Model 92 handgun to Mr Duggan, contrary to the Firearms Act 1968.

The prosecution claims Mr Duggan, who was under police surveillance, had travelled from Hoxton to collect the gun in a shoe box from the defendant in Leyton on August 4 last year.

The crown alleges that Hutchinson-Foster has admitted using the same gun to beat a barber six days earlier.

Mr Duggan, then 29, was shot dead by police in Ferry Lane moments after getting out of a taxi which had been stopped by armed officers, who have since told the trial Mr Duggan raised a handgun he was hiding in his jacket.

Today, Hutchinson-Foster refused to identify the man who he had collected the gun from in court for fear “of the consequences for me and my family”.

He told the jury of seven men and five women he went to get the gun after having a fight with love rival, barber Peter Osadebay.

He claimed to have collected the firearm, which was wrapped in socks, and used it to beat Mr Osadebay with before the fight spilled out on the street.

That evening the firearm was returned to the owner, he said.

Hutchinson-Foster also told the jury that several days before he was shot dead, Mr Duggan rescued him from a gang beating in which he told police he was hit on the head with a gun.

The defendant said that on either July 27 or 28, he went to visit a woman on an estate in Hackney when he was approached by a gang who attacked him.

He said: “Mark was in the area, he saw what was going on and basically told them to stop.”

The trial continues tomorrow at 10am.