Thomas Haigh, 40, was jailed for all times for the murders of David Griffiths and Brett Flournoy
BEST QUALITY AVAILABLEDevon and Cornwall Police undated handout picture of Thomas Haigh who has at present been discovered responsible of the shotgun murders of two underworld enforcers linked to an IRA medicine gang. PRESS ASSOCIATION Picture. Subject date: Monday February 13, 2012. Brett Flournoy, 31, and David Griffiths, 35, had been gunned down by Haigh, 26, a former medicine mule who owed them tens of 1000’s of kilos in drug money owed and was being bullied by them into making one other journey to choose up medicine in Brazil, at a distant farm in Cornwall in June final 12 months. The our bodies of Flournoy, a boxer and pub landlord with two kids, from Bebington in Merseyside, and father-of-three Griffiths, from Bracknell, Berks, had been put of their van and burned earlier than being buried of their car at Sunny Nook, close to Trenance Downs, St Austell. See PA story COURTS Subject. Picture credit score ought to learn: Devon and Cornwall Police/PA Wire (Picture: Devon and Cornwall Police)
A convicted double assassin sentenced to life imprisonment for taking pictures lifeless two gangland enforcers at a farm close to St Austell in Cornwall has died whereas serving his sentence at Strangeways jail in Manchester.
An investigation has been launched into the loss of life of 40 12 months outdated Thomas Haigh following his passing on the Class A jail.
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which investigates all deaths in jail custody, has printed particulars of the case on its web site.
Haigh — a former cage fighter initially from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire — was handed a life sentence with a minimal time period of 35 years in February 2012, for the brutal murders of David Griffiths and Brett Flournoy in June 2011.
The our bodies of Flournoy, a 31 12 months outdated boxer and pub landlord with two kids from Bebington on the Wirral, Merseyside, and father-of-three David Griffiths, 35, from Bracknell, Berkshire — however initially from Plymouth — had been found after co-defendant Ross Stone confessed to disposing of their corpses, experiences <a href=”https://www.devonlive.com/information/devon-news/killer-who-slaughtered-pair-remote-10901886″>Devon Dwell</a>.
Stone was acquitted of the lads’s murders, however was handed a five-year sentence after admitting burning the our bodies earlier than burying them in their very own van following the taking pictures at his house, Sunny Nook Farm, Trenance Down, St Austell.
Throughout a four-week trial at Truro Crown Court docket, it emerged that Stone and Haigh owed the victims roughly £40,000 in drug money owed. The courtroom heard that Mr Flournoy and Mr Griffiths had been placing strain on Haigh to make one other journey to gather medicine in Brazil when he carried out the murders.
Mr Justice Mackay, the presiding decide at sentencing, advised Haigh he was an “smug younger man” who had obtained out of his depth within the legal underworld.
“These had been dangerous males, however they had been dangerous males with the appropriate to not be killed as a result of buying and selling in medicine doesn’t carry the loss of life penalty, ” he mentioned.
“You had been drawn to the gangster lifestyle, you satisfied your self you had been a giant boy enjoying within the massive league.
“However I discovered your erratic behaviour made you unsuited to this elusive commerce. This was not more than a results of your chosen way of life. You knew the principles of the legal membership you joined and also you broke them.”
Haigh’s trial uncovered that the victims had been underworld enforcers working for an ‘IRA gang’ that managed Liverpool’s unlawful medicine commerce.
BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE Undated Devon and Cornwall Police handout picture of Brett Flournoy (left) and David Griffiths. Former cage fighter Thomas Haigh was jailed for all times at present for gunning down two gangland enforcers linked to an IRA medicine gang. PRESS ASSOCIATION Picture. Subject date: Tuesday February 14, 2012. Medication mule Haigh, 26, will serve a minimal of 35 years for blasting David Griffiths and Brett Flournoy at a distant Cornish farm as a result of they had been demanding he go to Brazil for a second time and produce again cocaine. See PA story COURTS Subject. Picture credit score ought to learn: Devon and Cornwall Police/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout picture might solely be utilized in for editorial reporting functions for the contemporaneous illustration of occasions, issues or the individuals within the picture or info talked about within the caption. Reuse of the image might require additional permission from the copyright holder. (Picture: PA)
Haigh displayed no emotion because the decide acknowledged that the strain he confronted from Griffiths and his “position mannequin” Flournoy was “no mitigation” for the offences he had dedicated.
“You shot these males lifeless, appearing alone and never in live performance with Stone,” mentioned Mr Justice Mackay.
“You left him to cowl up the carnage you left behind you. Why you probably did that is, to my thoughts, completely clear. The way you went about it’s much less clear.
“However you aimed and fired the photographs that killed these two males.” Haigh, who fled again to West Yorkshire within the wake of the killings, voluntarily handed himself in to officers in Huddersfield forward of his arrest and cost.
Stone knowledgeable the trial that Haigh had spoken about murdering the 2 males within the days previous their deaths.
Mr Griffiths was initially from Plymouth and the courtroom heard that he ran a medication operation from a property there, predominantly dealing in cocaine.
Following the lads’s failure to return house, their households reported them lacking and a lacking individuals investigation was launched.
A fortnight after their deaths, on July 1, police carried out an unrelated medicine raid on Sunny Nook and arrested Stone for cultivating hashish in two transport containers he had fitted with hydroponics gear and buried underground to keep away from detection by infra-red heat-sensing cameras.
A number of days later, Stone admitted throughout a police interview that the 2 males had been buried on the property and directed officers to the exact location.
Stone advised the jury he had pushed together with his mom to Newquay to report the crime to police however had been too terrified of the deceased males’s associates and resolved to make them disappear as a substitute. Giving proof, he acknowledged he had returned to the farm to find the drug sellers’ lifeless our bodies on the bottom. Haigh, he mentioned, had appeared topless and baggy. In July 2013, Haigh sought to have his conviction overturned. A report within the Western Morning Information highlighted how, following his convictions at Truro Crown Court docket, new proof emerged which he claimed implicated his acquitted co-accused, Stone, within the killings.
On the listening to, serving prisoner David Johnson — who was serving a 22-year stretch for tried homicide — alleged that Stone laughed whereas confessing to the murders.
Devon and Cornwall Police undated handout picture of the van through which Brett Flournoy and David Griffiths was buried in. Thomas Haigh has at present been discovered responsible of the shotgun murders of two underworld enforcers linked to an IRA medicine gang. PRESS ASSOCIATION Picture. Subject date: Monday February 13, 2012. Flournoy, 31, and Griffiths, 35, had been gunned down by Haigh, 26, a former medicine mule who owed them tens of 1000’s of kilos in drug money owed and was being bullied by them into making one other journey to choose up medicine in Brazil, at a distant farm in Cornwall in June final 12 months. The our bodies of Flournoy, a boxer and pub landlord with two kids, from Bebington in Merseyside, and father-of-three Griffiths, from Bracknell, Berks, had been put of their van and burned earlier than being buried of their car at Sunny Nook, close to Trenance Downs, St Austell. See PA story COURTS Subject. (Picture: PA)
Nevertheless, in November 2013, when delivering their judgment, Lord Justice Aikens, Mr Justice Irwin and Mr Justice Cranston declared Johnson’s proof was “not credible”.
“He’s a ordinary and gratuitous fabricator of tales, he’s a convicted liar,” mentioned Lord Justice Aikens.
“We’ve got concluded that this proof in regards to the dialog with Ross Stone will not be even arguably credible.”
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The judges dominated that Haigh’s appeals towards conviction had been “unarguable” and dismissed them, but diminished the minimal tariff he was required to serve earlier than being eligible for parole from 35 to 32 years.
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman confirmed that an investigation is now underway. Haigh’s date of beginning and the date of his loss of life — 15 March — has been printed on its web site, alongside affirmation that he died whereas an inmate at HMP Manchester. The ombudsman acknowledged an investigation was ‘in progress’, although no additional particulars surrounding the circumstances of his loss of life have been made public. A Jail Service spokesperson mentioned: “HMP Manchester prisoner Thomas Haigh died on 15 March 2026. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will examine.”
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