Acid murder suspect ‘said he wanted victim “to suffer” in secret jail recording’
A MAN accused of a shooting and acid attack murder wanted his victim “to suffer”, a court heard.
Michael Hillier, 39, was caught speaking of his involvement in the plot to harm Liam Smith, 38, in a secret jail recording.
He is accused of joint enterprise murder along with his girlfriend Rachel Fulstow, 37.
The two are alleged to have killed Mr Smith after Fulstow claimed he had raped her.
Mr Smith, an electrician from Wigan, Greater Manchester, had had a “brief liaison” with former nail technician Fulstow, with a one-night stand in a York hotel in 2019.
The next year she became the partner of Hillier, who was not happy about the fling and was “led to believe she had been raped”, the court heard.
Jurors were told Mr Smith was lured out of his home and blasted at close range with a gun by Hillier who then poured corrosive liquid, probably sulphuric acid, on the face and body of his stricken victim.
He was left for dead in the street outside his house after the attack in the early evening of November 24 last year.
In a secret tape played to Manchester’s Minshull Street crown court, Hillier is heard saying: “We both wanted him to suffer. It was never the intention that he would die.”
Hillier, of Sheffield, and Fulstow, of York, both deny murder.
The trial continues.