Jury poised to be sent out in the trial of eight men accused of a Wigan dad's vigilante murder

The High Court judge, Mr Justice Wall, began summing up the eight weeks of sometimes harrowing evidence the jury has heard at Liverpool Crown Court.

Eight defendants are on trial denying kidnapping and murdering the 37-year-old Wigan dad of one on February 18 last year and conspiracy to cause him grievous bodily harm.

It is alleged that the gang hunted down 37-year-old Mr Hughes, whom they wrongly suspected of the knifepoint rape of a teenage girl behind a post office in Ridyard Street, Wigan.

He was snatched off the street in broad daylight on February 18 last year and bundled into the boot of a blue Audi and driven to White Moss Road South, Skelmersdale where he was viciously stabbed to death, suffering more than 90 stab wounds.

It is claimed that they had been involved in a manhunt in the preceding 24 hours to find Mr Hughes before he was spotted in Almond Grove in Wigan and swiftly abducted by Curtis Balbas and Erland Spahiu.

The Audi was seen on CCTV to enter White Moss Road South from junction 4 of the M58 at 4.48 pm and twenty minutes later it was seen heading towards junction 3 towards Wigan.

“In the intervening period Christopher Hughes was taken from the boot, viciously attacked and then left at the foot of the embankment on White Moss Road South,” claimed John Elvidge, KC, prosecuting.

Later that evening four of the defendants, Dean O’Neill Davey, Andrius Uzkuraitis, Spahiu and his cousin, who was visiting from London, Erio Voja, allegedly formed a burial party to hide the body.

They were allegedly digging a grave on nearly waste land when they were disturbed by police cars who were investigating a road traffic accident nearby and they abandoned the burial.

O’Neill Davey, who was still dressed in his digging kit including wellies, was stopped nearby but he kept his cool and was allowed to go on his way by police, the court has heard.

Balbas, 30, of Matheson Drive, Worsley Hall, has pleaded guilty to the kidnap and murder of the former boxer.

Spahiu, 34, of White Moss Road South, Skelmersdale, has told how the helpless victim could be heard in the boot after his kidnapping asking ‘what have I done wrong?’

But Spahiu claimed that after his business partner Balbas bundled Mr Hughes into the boot of his Audi he got out before Balbas drove off.

Those on trial are - Spahiu; O’Neill Davey, 30, of Conrad Close, formerly of Bulteel Street, Wigan; Martin Smith, 34, of Greenwood Avenue: Uzkuraitis, 27, of Holly Road, Worsley Hall; Alan Jaf, 52, of Ridyard Street, Worsley Hall; Khalil Awla, 48, of Greenwood Avenue and Voja, 21, of Peall Road, Croydon, London.

Alongside them is Michael Gibbons, 47, of Bulteel Street, Pemberton, who denies perverting the course of justice in the aftermath of the murder involving providing false information to the police and helping O’Neill Davey to dispose of the blue Audi car allegedly used to kidnap Mr Hughes.

Proceeding