Consett man shot 150 times fears he will never see justice

Jul 11 2009 by Sophie Doughty, The Journal

BLASTED with 150 metal pellets on his doorstep lucky-to-be alive Joe Clarke fears he may never see justice done. The dad-of-two put his faith in the legal system and agreed to give evidence at trial in the hope that the people responsible for his injuries would be locked up and his family would be safe.

Yet, Joe now fears he will never be able to feel safe in his home again.

The trial of five people charged with plotting his murder has collapsed after a judge ruled detectives were guilty of serious misconduct when they raided the defendants’ solicitor’s home.

Joe is likely to spend the rest of his life recovering from the gun attack, in December 2007, which the court heard followed a row with his ex-girlfriend.

Around 150 steel or lead pellets entered his body when he was blasted with a sawn-off shotgun after answering the door at his home, in Fairways, Consett, County Durham.

The 32-year-old is now a walking gun cartridge after the pellets entered his back, head and neck, and penetrated all his vital organs.

And doctors have told him it is too dangerous to operate and remove the metal from his body, including the two pieces wedged in his heart, and those which have destroyed half of both his kidneys.

So the former oil-rig worker must spend the rest of his life on medication, undergoing regular hospital tests to check his organs are not failing or the pellets have not moved into a more dangerous position. He is likely to be taking tablets for the rest of his life, and medics believe his life-expectancy could have been shortened by around 25 years, by the attack.

But while Joe, who has been haunted by sleepless nights and panic attacks, waited to find out if he would be able to return to work, he was looking forward to seeing those accused of the shooting stand trial this month.

Yet, the dad, and his new partner, Amanda Cowen, 25, have now learned that all charges against Paul Railton, 23, his uncle, Gary Railton, 42, Simon Cairns, 20, Neil Spoor, 39, and Abbie Whitehead, 23, have been dropped because of the detectives’ behaviour during the investigation.

And he is now terrified that the people who attacked him are still at large and could hurt him, Amanda and their daughters, Tasha, seven, and Sumer, nine.