A pensioner was killed after a couple used a policeman friend to trace him and then attacked his home in a dispute over a supermarket parking space, a jury was told yesterday.
Bernard Gilbert, 79, died of a heart attack after a brick was thrown through his window.
The former Rolls-Royce worker became a target when he shouted at Zoe Forbes, 26, because she parked her car in a space he had earmarked for himself at a branch of Asda, Nottingham Crown Court was told.
Mrs Forbes was upset and called her husband Mark, who told her to note down Mr Gilbert’s numberplate. He then asked a policeman friend to check Mr Gilbert’s address on the police national computer, using the car registration number.
Mr Forbes sent his wife a text message reading: “We’ll smash his car to bits and then his hire car and then whatever he gets after that until he dies.”
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The couple deny manslaughter.
The dispute erupted a few days earlier at the Asda branch in Spondon, a suburb of Derby.
Michael Auty, for the prosecution, said: “Mr Gilbert took the view that Mrs Forbes had nipped into his parking space — and, to use colloquial terms, he blew his stack at her.”
Mr Auty said it was fair to say Mr Gilbert’s behaviour could have been considered “over-the-top, abusive and insulting” to Mrs Forbes. Other shoppers who witnessed the row went over to her to make sure she was all right and found her physically unharmed but extremely shaken.
Mr Auty said her first reaction was to telephone her husband, who was infuriated by her treatment and immediately began to plot a revenge attack.
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He told her to make a note of Mr Gilbert’s numberplate and also asked if it was likely that he would return to the store the same time the following week.
The court was told that Mr Forbes, 40, texted his wife the next day to update her on the plan’s progress. “I’ve got someone on to it,” he wrote. “Fingers crossed, I’ll get an address.”
Mr Forbes, who allegedly bought Stanley knives to slash Mr Gilbert’s tyres, and balaclavas to wear during the attack, received the reply: “Okay, sweetie-pie.”
In another text, sent to his wife on the eve of the attack, he said: “I just hope no-one comes out, because the mood I’m in I’ll knock f*** out of him.”
Mr Auty said Forbes enlisted the help of his brother, Steven, 22. Steven Forbes also denies manslaughter but admitted throwing the brick and has admitted a charge of criminal damage.
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When Mr Forbes received Mr Gilbert’s address he sent texts to several friends to say that his plot was nearing completion. He boasted in the message: “Bingo! Number 17, your time is up! I’m here now. I’ve just driven past. The garage doors are open — unlucky!”
Mr Forbes and his brother went to Mr Gilbert’s bungalow in a quiet cul-de-sac in Spondon on the evening of January 28 last year.
The pensioner and his wife of 55 years, Betty, were watching a wildlife programme on TV when Mrs Gilbert heard a noise “like a bomb going off”.
She discovered that half a brick had been hurled through the double-glazed bedroom window.
Mr Gilbert was “ashen and shaken” and slumped in a chair. He died about 35 minutes after the brick was thrown and before an ambulance could reach him.
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The three defendants denied targeting Mr Gilbert until they were confronted with their text-messages
Mr Auty said that Mr Gilbert, who was already on medication for diabetes, high blood-pressure and high cholesterol, was later found to have angina. Doctors believed there was a 50 per cent probability that the previously undiagnosed condition would have killed him within 12 months.