Ex-drugs mule guilty of killing IRA-linked pair

Thomas Haigh, 26, formerly of Huddersfield, is to be sentenced today for the shotgun killings of Brett Flournoy, 31, and David Griffiths, 35, in June last year.

He owed the pair tens of thousands of pounds in drugs debts and was bullied by them into making a trip to pick up drugs in Brazil, a court was told.

The bodies of Flournoy, a Merseyside boxer and pub landlord with two children, and father-of-three Griffiths, from Berkshire, were put in their van and burned.

The vehicle was then buried – with the bodies still inside – near Trenance Downs, St Austell.

A jury at Truro Crown Court took less than three hours to find Haigh guilty of murder.

His co-accused, Ross Stone, 28, who lived at Sunny Corner and also owed Flournoy and Griffiths drug debts, was cleared of murder and manslaughter but admitted obstructing a coroner by illegally disposing of the bodies.

Haigh and Stone had each blamed the other for the killing of the two men, whom Haigh claimed worked for an IRA gang that “ran” Liverpool’s drugs trade.

Detective Chief Inspector Keith Perkins, who led the murder investigation, said his thoughts were with the victims’ families.

“Despite what we have heard about organised crime during this trial, they have left behind young children, partners, parents and brothers and sisters,” he said.

“The origins of this case are in organised crime. This was not a case of gangs running amok with firearms.”