David Barnshaw

David Barnshaw was burned to death in the back of a black Ford Orion car on an industrial estate in Lower Bredbury, Stockport.

It was thought that he had been forced to drink petrol beforehand as petrol was found in both his stomach and lungs.

He and a friend, who was also a drug dealer, had been kidnapped from the Moss Rose pub two miles away in Didsbury at 9.30pm and taken to the industrial estate on Welkin Road. It was thought that the car had gone from the Moss Rose pub to Welkin Road via the M60 or through Stockport centre.

They were then tied up and beaten and then David Barnshaw was forced to drink petrol and put in the back of the car whilst his friend was put in the boot.

The friend managed to call 999 during which, 40 seconds into the call, David Barnshaw could be heard pleading for his life in the background. During the call, the friend said, 'A load of lads, they threw me in the back of the car. Please just get the police to the Moss Rose quick, they are killing us. Please, they're battering us. Please stop. Please, please come. Please come please. Please, quick.'.

Moments later the friend managed to open the boot of the car and get out and said that he then saw the car go up in flames.

David Barnshaw was a known drug dealer and the police said that because of that they decided to release the recording of the 999 call as people were otherwise less likely to help in their enquiries.

Five men were charged and tried for his murder, but the case collapsed in 2002.

At the 2002 trial, the man that had been in the back of the car had said that he had heard the voice of the main person that was charged and tried for David Barnshaw's murder.

However, it was said that that police had ignored the possibility that anyone else could have committed the murders and had withheld information from the defence. It was also heard that the name of another possible suspect had come up time and time again but that the police had ignored the information. Some of the information had been supplied by a police informant via the National Crime Squad which had not passed it on to the police and that when they sent part of it to the police in a document known as Log 89, some of it disappeared. It was heard that three days before the murder, the police informant had contacted the National Crime Squad to say that the alternative suspect had discussed a punishment that would be handed out.