Thugs who tried to murder ex-fighter involved in UK's biggest cash robbery learn fate

Three men found guilty of the attempted of an ex cage fighter who served time over have been . Paul Allen, then aged 41, was paralysed in an attack in Woodford, East London, in July 2019.

Allen was previously , with much of the money still missing. Louis Ahearne, 36, his brother Stewart Ahearne, 46, and 46-year-old Daniel Kelly - missing from today's sentencing owing to back pain - were previously convicted of plotting to murder him with others unknown. Today the trio were sentenced at the Old Bailey.

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Kelly dodged a life sentence but was sent away for 36 years with an extended licence period of five years. Stewart Ahearne was sentenced to 30 years behind bars while his brother was sentenced to 33. They must each serve at least two thirds of their sentences.

Passing sentence, Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC told the court she considered Kelly a "dangerous offender" who "went to some lengths to conceal his true involvement" in the shooting. She added: "I have no doubt this agreement to murder Paul Allen involved other people apart from the three of you and that you three were motivated by a promise of financial gain.

"The culpability of each one of you is very high. The harm caused to the victim was very serious - indeed short of killing him it could hardly be more serious. He is currently paralysed and relies on others for every single need." She added Stuart Ahearne hired a car used in his own name which showed a "lack of sophistication" on his part.

Six shots were fired by a Glock self-loading handgun as Allen stood in his kitchen at 11.09pm on July 11, 2019 and two hit him, including one which lodged in his spine after entering his throat.

Passing sentence today, the judge said it was not clear whether the attempted murder of Allen was linked to his Securitas warehouse robbery. She also noted how Stewart Ahearne was not present at Allen's home at the time of the shooting, whereas Louis Ahearne and Kelly were. The time the Ahearne brothers spent in prison in Switzerland was considered as a mitigating factor in the sentencing.

The judge was confident it was Kelly who fired the shots, as he was seen on CCTV putting on gloves. She also noted how Kelly "recruited" the brothers for the plot. Louis Ahearne was described as the "getaway driver", whereas Stewart Ahearne's main job was to hire the car used in the shooting.

Prosecutor Michael Shaw previously told the Old Bailey: "Gunshots were fired at a man called Paul Allen as he stood in the kitchen at the back of his large detached house. Paul Allen is a career criminal and a very sophisticated criminal at that.

“He was convicted a number of years ago for his part in what was then, and probably still is, Britain's biggest armed robbery in which £54 million in cash was stolen, much of which is still outstanding."

“The intention of the men who planned and carried out this shooting was to kill him. You will have no doubt about that when you hear the evidence. They very nearly succeeded.

“At least six bullets were fired at him from that Glock handgun, two of which struck him. One hit him in the centre of the throat and left him paralysed for life.

"It was only the rapid intervention of neighbours, police officers, paramedics, and then the skill of surgeons who were able to remove the bullet lodged in his spine, that saved his life.”

The Old Bailey trial earlier heard how the men pulled off an audacious heist at the Museum of Far Eastern Arts in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 1, 2019 - a month before Allen was shot.

Three items were stolen - an early 15th-century bottle with a secret pomegranate decoration; a small wine cup known as the "chicken cup"; and a 14th-century An Huan phoenix design bowl. Jurors heard Kelly and Louis Ahearne had flown into Geneva from London the day before the raid.

They bought tools and clothes before carrying out the burglary at night. Jurors heard they arrived with masks, gloves, forehead lamps, an angle-grinder, crowbar and sledgehammer. They entered the building through a hole which they made by smashing two lower panels on the museum's main door.

Police later identified DNA around the hole as belonging to Stewart Ahearne. The defendants later flew to Hong Kong where they attempted to sell the phoenix bowl at an auction house. On October 16, 2020, Stewart Ahearne was arrested with another man at a London hotel as they tried to sell the vase to an undercover police officer.

Louis Ahearne, of Greenwich, and Stewart Ahearne and Kelly, both of no fixed address, had denied conspiring to murder Allen.