Brothers guilty of murder plot
Dec 19 2007 by Ben Guy, The Journal
TWO brothers are facing jail today for plotting to kill a disabled father who was gunned down in his own home.
Paul Bourn and his brother Max were found guilty at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday of conspiracy to murder Jeffrey Lowdon who was shot four times at close range.
They were also convicted of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm to Mr Lowdon arising from an incident six months earlier when he was ambushed and beaten unconscious in the street.
The jury was discharged from reaching verdicts on a further charge against both men of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and one of attempted murder against Max Bourn alone.
Prosecutors claimed both attacks on Jeffrey Lowdon, who has multiple sclerosis and walks with a stick, were set up by Paul Bourn, who had become obsessed with Mr Lowdon’s wife Joanne.
The first happened on March 3 this year as the 49-year-old victim left a social club in Belle Close, Lemington, Newcastle. The shooting happened on September 23 as he stood in the kitchen of his home in Fernwood Road, Lemington.
The court was told that Mr Lowdon, who did not see who shot him, survived after surgery for multiple entry and exit wounds to his chest, stomach, groin and arm.
One bullet had passed through him, hit the wall and ricocheted across on to a window ledge while another bullet was embedded in the front of a drawer.
The prosecution alleged that Max Bourn was the gunman and said that he was recruited by his brother who, on the night of the shooting, had set himself up an alibi by having his usual Saturday night drink with Mr and Mrs Lowdon.
Paul Bourn, 47, of Orchard Terrace, Lemington, Newcastle, and Max Bourn, 37, of Scotland Gate, near Ashington, in Northumberland, had denied the charges against them.
They were both remanded in custody by Judge Esmond Faulks, who adjourned the case until today for sentencing.
A third man – James Richardson, 27, of Gill Street in Benwell, Newcastle, who had denied all three conspiracy counts – was acquitted part way through the trial after legal submissions.
