'A disproportionate act of revenge'

PROSECUTOR TELLS MURDER TRIAL ELECTRICIAN WAS LURED TO HIS DEATH AFTER ONE-NIGHT STAND

- CHRIS SLATER

AN ELECTRICIAN who was ‘lured’ out of his home, shot in the face and had acid poured over him was ‘executed’ in a ‘well-orchestrated plot’, the jury at a murder trial was told.

Liam Smith, 38, was murdered on the evening of November 24 last year on Kilburn Drive in Shevington, Wigan, by the then boyfriend of a woman he had had a ‘one-night stand’ with, who ‘encouraged and ‘assisted’ the attack, prosecutors allege.

Mr Smith was fatally blasted ‘probably from close range’ before having sulfuric acid and then soda crystals poured on his face and body, causing his flesh to be ‘burned away in those areas where the acid made contact with his skin.’

Michael Hiller, 39, from Sheffield, has admitted killing Mr Smith after pleading guilty to manslaughter, but he denies murder.

Rachel Fulstow, 37, from York, denies murder, manslaughter and perverting the course of justice.

The pair are standing trial at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.

Opening the case to the jury, Jason Pitter KC described the alleged murder as ‘probably a misplaced, misguided and wholly disproportionate act of revenge’.

He said that Ms Fulstow was known to Mr Smith and that it appeared that in 2019 they had a ‘brief liaison’ where they spent a night together in a hotel in York. In the following year or in 2021, Ms Fulstow became the partner of Mr Hillier, the court was told. “The fact and circumstances of that liaison played a role in sparking Hillier into action,” Mr Pitter said.