John Haselden

John Haselden was shot in the head and left outside Whiston hospital on 1 December 1997.

A man that was suspected of shooting him was later also shot dead in 2001. It was said that the suspect had escaped being prosecuted because of a legal blunder by the police.

John Haselden was found in the maternity car park of Whiston hospital where he had been left to die. He was in the passenger seat of his own blue Ford Escort cabriolet car, registration P212 RMB.

After he was found he was taken into the casualty ward but later died.

It was said that the man that had driven the car to the hospital had asked a passer-by for help and had then left in another white car, possibly an XR3i or a GTE, with two men in it. The man that had asked for the help was described as being white, in his mid-thirties and 5ft 8ins to 5ft 10in tall. He was also said to have been wearing a bright yellow oilskin jacket with a hood pulled up, light jogging pants, a pale T-shirt and dark shoes. The white car was seen to drive off at speed along Stoney Lane and to then turned off into Cumber Lane.

The police said that they didn't know whether the man and the other two men had been John Haselden's murderers or friends.

When he was seen leaving his house on Borron Road that he shared with his parents an hour earlier at 10.50pm that Monday night he was said to have been in good spirits. The police said that they didn't know where John Haselden was shot.

Friends of John Haselden said that he had had also been savagely beaten recently and that his murder was drugs related.

During the police investigation is was stated that a red Maestro car had been seen following the white car out of the car park and that the red Maestro car was later traced. They said that the occupants of the red Maestro car said that they had spoken to two teenage girls in the car park and the police said that they were keen to speak to them.

The police said that they were also interested in speaking to a man that had been seen jogging along Stoney Lane in the direction of Rainhill on the hospital side of the road shortly after John Haselden's blue Ford Escort cabriolet car was brought to the hospital. It was said that as he had approached the Accident and Emergency entrance he was seen to stumble and nearly fall over. He was said to have been wearing an Everton FC away strip which was yellow and blue.

John Haselden was single and a self-employed car dealer. His parents always called him Little John even though he was 17 stone. Neighbours described John Haselden as a big bloke who could look after himself. Neighbours also speculated that it was a drugs related murder stating that drugs were everywhere and that people were trying to make big money and were often getting in over their heads.

When he was shot he had been wearing jeans and a distinctive black, mid-thigh length zip-up windcheater which had four pockets each zipped and decorated with an arrow.

The man that was suspected of murdering John Haselden was also thought to have been involved in other shootings including a shooting at Jalons restaurant in Wavertree in October 2000 and a shooting at a Netherley house party in 1995. The murder suspect was also said to have been a close friend of a Liverpool drugs baron and to have spent a lot of time living in Amsterdam.