No Verdict In Mark Duggan Handgun Case

A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the case of a man accused of supplying a gun to Mark Duggan, whose fatal shooting by police sparked the Tottenham riots.

Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, 30, was charged with passing the gun to Mr Duggan just 15 minutes before he was shot dead by police on August 4 last year.

But a jury of seven men and five women at Snaresbrook Crown Court was unable to reach a verdict after nearly 21 hours of deliberations.

Judge David Radford had allowed them to reach a majority verdict of 10-2 or 11-1, but he discharged them after they were unable to come to a decision.

A re-trial will be held at a date to be set. An administrative hearing will take place on November 2.

Mr Duggan's death in Ferry Lane, Tottenham, sparked riots which swept across the capital and the country.

Armed police, who gave evidence anonymously, told the court that they opened fire on Mr Duggan because they saw him get out of the cab holding a loaded gun.

The officer who shot Mr Duggan twice said he opened fire because he thought he and his colleagues were themselves going to be shot.

Mr Duggan, who was under police surveillance on August 4 and the previous day, had gone in the minicab to Leyton, east London, where he collected the gun in a shoebox from Hutchinson-Foster, before continuing to Tottenham, prosecutors said.

The cab was pulled over by armed police in four unmarked cars in what is termed a "hard stop" and, according to officers, Mr Duggan got out with the gun in his hand, prompting them to shoot him.

Hutchinson-Foster, of no fixed address, denied a single charge of "selling or transferring a prohibited firearm" to Mr Duggan between July 28 and August 5, 2011.

He claimed his DNA was found on the gun because he had used it six days earlier to beat a man, but said he returned it the same day.

He claimed he and Mr Duggan had been in mobile phone contact with each other because Mr Duggan wanted his help in setting up a drug deal.