A "GANGSTER" insists he did not hire a hitman to murder his lover's husband. Darren Wilson told Hull Crown Court hitman Mikail Ward was a "lunatic" and a "clown" for suggesting he had hired him to kill someone.
Mr Wilson and his lover Lisa Fairpo are on trial accused of plotting to murder her husband Andrew Burr by paying Mr Ward £10,000 to kill him.
It is alleged Mrs Fairpo and Mr Wilson were conspiring to murder Mr Burr to get a £750,000 life insurance payout.
In his defence, Mr Wilson told the jury he did not ask Mr Ward to kill someone for him.
"He said to me 'I will kneecap someone and I will kill someone'. I just thought he was a clown. I was not impressed.
"He said 'if you want anyone killing I will do it for £10,000 for you'. I just thought he was a lunatic.
"He said he had shot people and was a mercenary.
"He was always on about killing people for money."
Another mistress of Mr Wilson's, Pauline Jackson, said he told her he was having someone killed for £10,000 and he was to get £30,000 of insurance money.
Mr Wilson told the court: "Mickey (Ward) was hanging about as he was always being a pest. When I saw Pauline I told her what he had said as I was upset by it all.
"It was him talking."
The court had heard Mrs Fairpo believed Mr Wilson was himself a hitman.
He said: "I didn't actually use the word hitman, I just said I sorted people out. I played up to a bad boy image to Lisa and Pauline."
In cross-examination, Mrs Fairpo's solicitor Judith Seaborne put it to him: "You gave them the impression you were a hard man with a dark past."
Mr Wilson, who has admitted he is a loan shark, replied: "I was pertaining to the job I was doing. If I didn't come across like that people wouldn't pay the money back."
He told the court he had only had sex with Mrs Fairpo once and had been in love with Mrs Jackson.
It is also alleged Mr Wilson conspired to commit arson by arranging for a property in Grove Street, west Hull, to be petrol bombed in order to scare the tenants away so he could use it to grow cannabis.
He told the jury that he knew nothing of a plot to bomb it and claimed Mr Ward had done it.
Mr Wilson said: "Mr Ward told me (about it). I didn't even know where Grove Street was.
"If you burn it down there is not much way you can grow anything in it.
"I told him there were children in there and he said 'you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs'. He seemed to have no remorse whatsoever.
"I was not involved in fire bombing it at all."
Mrs Faipo, of Northside Road, Hollym, and Mr Wilson, of Appin Close, Bransholme, deny conspiracy to murder.
Mr Wilson also denies conspiracy to commit arson.
The trial continues.
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