Coventry men admit killing missing drugs smuggler

TWO Coventry men have dramatically admitted killing and hiding the body of a drug smuggler who has been missing since 2009.

Boxing promoter Kevin Houston, of Longford Road, Longford, and James Doe, formerly of Broomfield Road, Earlsdon, both pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Jesse Richards, whose body has never been found.

The pair had been on trial for the murder of the father-of-three at Birmingham Crown Court, along with three others.

But after Jimmy Johnson – once described as the “king of the Gypsies” in a BBC documentary – gave evidence, four of the seven defendants decided to come clean.

Houston, 50, admitted manslaughter and obstructing a coroner, Doe, 38, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and blackmail, and David Butler, 26, from Slough, admitted obstructing a coroner.

Joseph Doe, 37, of Essex, pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.

He admitted throwing away a phone sim card before travelling to Coventry and meeting James Doe, disposing of the shoes and clothes he wore when he attacked Mr Richards.
Jesse Richards

All the other charges against the four men have now been dropped.

Three other men – Martin Sutherland, of Stonebury Avenue, Eastern Green, Coventry, Jonathan Calcott, of Carnation Way, Nuneaton and Matthew Taylor, of Wyken Way, Wyken, Coventry – remain on trial.

Sutherland, 44, and Calcott, 30, deny perverting the course of justice while Taylor, 28, denies murder and obstructing a coroner.

The court had previously heard that devoted father and scrap dealer Mr Richards was also a career criminal who specialised in smuggling drugs from abroad.

After he disappeared, police discovered £1million of cannabis in a storage unit but a previous bungled drugs deal had meant he was in significant debt.

The prosecution say that Mr Richards was attacked at the Cleeve Prior Travellers’ Site in Essex on July 31, 2009.

Since then police teams have carried out excavations in Druid Close, Stoke, Coventry; Breach Oak Lane, Corley; and in a field next to Chesterton Windmill, near Leamington, to try to find his body.

Police even explored the possibility that Mr Richards was in hospital, being held captive, or had fled abroad, but found no evidence to support either theory.

Witnesses had suggested that Mr Richards was in regular contact with his children, sometimes up to 10 times a day, before he went missing.

He had also arranged to meet a woman he was having an affair with the following day.

Nobody has heard from him since July 31 2009 though.

On Monday the ongoing trial heard evidence from an anonymous witness who said that Jimmy Johnson had asked him to act as a minder for Jesse Richards.

Mr Johnson had been trying to settle Mr Richards’ debt, but before he could do so, or before the witness could be employed as a minder, he went missing.