Thre's a bit of background to this, but here's where we're up to.
MENArran Coghlan emerged from prison with a scar on his face from his fatal scuffle with Stephen Akinyemi, saying: "It was a good shot – but not good enough."
When police found Mr Akinyemi dead in a first-floor bathroom in Mr Coglan’s Alderley Edge home, he was still clutching a knife.
A 9mm Beretta with a silencer was discovered on the garage floor.
Four shots had been fired. Two bullets were lodged in Mr Akinyemi’s body armour – which he wore all the time – and one was stuck in a bathroom wall. The other bullet went into Mr Akinyemi’s left temple and through his brain.
He also sustained a broken bone in his neck where Mr Coghlan had punched him.
Mr Coghlan – who suffered several stab-wounds – always argued he acted in self-defence.
Police had claimed he manipulated the scene and placed the knife in Mr Akinyemi’s hand.
But they later admitted new forensic evidence meant the knife could have been Mr Akinyemi’s own.
After being freed from Wakefield prison, where he was being held on remand, Mr Coghlan said: "I would do it again, it’s all about safety.
"Somebody held a knife to me and I had to defend myself.
"The sad thing is this was a friend but that was the path he chose and it was my duty to defend myself.
"It was a good shot – but it was not good enough."
Mr Coghlan added: "If someone holds you at gunpoint, pulls a knife out and sticks it in your neck... I managed to survive that and turn the tables. I think I did rather well."
Mr Coghlan described the prosecution against him as ‘a disgrace’.
"They knew full well what had happened from all the evidence they found yet they still chose to pursue me," he said.
"If this was absolutely anybody else they would have been commended for what they had done.
"They knew all this. It was just a disgrace from day one. There are no excuses."
Mr Coghlan said he believed it was a British legal record to be cleared three times of three different murder charges.
And he added: "What would I say to people who doubt my innocence?
"I would say the police have tried to stitch me up three times and they failed on each occasion.
"This is another example of the police trying to turn somebody over.
"If I was Joe Public they would have succeeded. Although having said that if it was Joe Public they wouldn’t have been here in the first place.
"I don’t do dying – that’s for others. It is not in my nature to die.
"I find it entirely unacceptable and I don’t do getting stitched up by the police.
"This has sent out a clear message. I am always on guard and always ready to defend myself."
Arron![]()
Aki
Released yesterday
When I met him in a club he was giving it 'don't you know who I am' & all that shit to people. Ignore the reports calling him a mild-mannered businessman, he's a cnut. The guy he shot/stabbed was a main player in the Cheetham Hill gang, which is made up of characters you really shouldn't fuck with.
They've had problems in the recent past.
What they're not telling you is that it was connected to an incident where four CH members were blasted as they sat in their car just before Christmas. Not all of them died. I can't find a link to that shooting as typing 'Cheetham Hill multiple murder' into Google brings up too many results!A MAN who was acquitted after being accused of two gangland murders remains in hospital after being stabbed in a town centre pub.
Arran Coghlan - who was previously named in court as a drugs boss - was stabbed in the head, face and back in the frenzied attack in Cobdens in Stockport. He claims he was an innocent bystander who attempted to break up a fight.
Initially, doctors described his injuries as critical, but his condition has stabilised following surgery.
Two others injured as part of the same incident in the early hours of New Year's Day also continue to be treated in hospital.
The Alderley Edge man first hit the headlines when he was cleared of murdering Stockport `Mr Big', Chris Little, in the late 1990s.
The other murders he was cleared of make fun reading.
The first one is fairly standard, he shot Chris Little in the face after pulling up next to him at traffic lights.
IndependantAs a man of driving ambition, Christopher Little accelerated through life. On Friday night, with two bullet holes in his head and his foot hard on the pedal of a pounds 50,000 Mercedes sports car, he sped to his death.
The former nightclub bouncer turned drug dealer and racketeer had travelled far on his trip from Stockport to oblivion. He was 31, rich, flashy. As he made money, he made enemies. He kept a ferocious Rottweiler and was a man to be feared as well as envied.
Most of all, Chris Little was a product of Greater Manchester, a city now coping with some of the most viciously criminal neighbourhoods in urban Europe. As a local villain, he was known to police in Stockport as an empire-builder rather than 'self-employed builder' as he had lately styled himself. In reality, he was a feared racketeer. One man who betrayed him was bundled into a small dark room with only the Rottweiler for company.
Little's gangs of doormen provided 'security' at nightclubs in Stockport. One club run by rivals was targeted in a gun attack recently.
Earlier this year, Little recruited young men to launch a spate of arson attacks in Stockport in which schools, shops and vehicles were damaged by firebombs. No one was hurt, but about pounds 1m worth of damage was done.
Although the police suspected Little of organising the attacks (thought to have been carried out as a show of strength), he was never charged.
Lately, Little had tried to expand his empire into the Stretford area, stepping on the toes of drug barons there.
He owned a nice house in a good area of Stockport, but probably his greatest pride and joy was the Merc - a black 500 SLE. With the Rottweiler, nobody would surprise him; with the car, nobody would catch him. It turned out to be a fatal double delusion.
As he stopped at traffic lights in Stockport Road, Marple, on Friday night, a white Ford Granada travelling in the same direction pulled up alongside. The shots came from its open window.
Under the dying man's foot, the automatic Merc sped off, colliding with two vehicles and injuring four people.
At the dead man's home yesterday, the Rottweiler could be heard barking
This one is the best.
There's a lot to take in, but it's a good read.
These are articles from various sources in date order.POLICE investigating the death of David Barnshaw have charged a third man with murder.
Aaron Charlton Coghlan, 29, from Brook Lane, Alderley Edge, is charged with murdering the 32-year-old, conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to supply drugs and conspiracy to pervert the cause of justice.
Philip Robert Moore, 38, of Brinnington and Stephen Beddows, 27, of Essex Road, Brinnington, are in custody on the same charges.
The charred body of Mr Barnshaw, 30, was found in a burned-out car in Welkin Road, Lower Bredbury, on September 20 1999. Mr Barnshaw and another man were allegedly kidnapped in the car park of the Moss Rose pub, Norris Bank. It was alleged that Mr Barnshaw was tied up and doused with petrol before the car was set alight with him in it.
A JURY has heard how a small-time Stockport drug dealer offered £50,000 in return for his life before he was murdered.
David Barnshaw, 32, died in a blazing car after it was doused with petrol, Preston Crown Court has been told.
His friend 42-year-old John Berry, had earlier been bound with tape and put into the boot of a Ford Orion.
Mr Berry told the jury when the car stopped, he recognised the voice of alleged gang leader Arran Coghlan.
Coghlan, 31, of Alderley Edge, and five other men, Paul Johnson, 26, Phillip Moore, 40, Denis Burgess, 31, Stephen Beddows, 28 and Neil Grice, 22, deny murder.
The prosecution alleges Mr Barnshaw was killed as a punishment for defying Coghlan who controlled the drugs scene in the Stockport area.
Evidence suggested he may have been forced to drink petrol before the car was set ablaze in September 1999.
Mr Berry told how he developed a cocaine habit during the nineties and went on to sell drugs to fund his habit.
He met David Barnshaw in February 1990 and the two became close friends.
The witness told the court Coghlan later tried to get him to sell nine ounces of cocaine around pubs.
He went on to receive cocaine and sold around one and a half ounces.
Mr Berry and his friend Dave later dropped off outstanding drugs and some cash during a meeting and they made a promise not to sell cocaine in Stockport.
Mr Berry said: "We had no intention of keeping that promise.
"Dave still carried on selling ecstasy tablets to Philip Moore.
"Between the promise and September 20 we sold cocaine in Stockport."
He said they went to the Moss Rose pub on Didsbury Road, Heaton Norris on the night of the 20th to receive some money from defendant Moore.
As he and another man, not Mr Barnshaw, later stepped out of the premises they were attacked from behind, struck on the head, kicked and punched.
Mr Berry claimed he saw another defendant Denis Burgess who told the other man, "It's your unlucky night tonight. You are gonna die."
He himself was placed face first into the boot of the car and the lid shut.
He had been bound by tape around his legs and hands and while ther managed to snap the tape and "call the cops" on a mobile phone.
"I heard Dave screaming 'John, John'. A few times he shouted that. I just wish I could have done more.
"Dave said 'please don't. I'll give you fifty grand.' He was pleading for his life. I did the same to the cop woman on the phone," Mr Berry said.
When the car stopped Mr Berry heard the sound of another vehicle pull up and the door open.
He heard a man's voice say "David" and claimed he recognised the voice as that of Az - Coghlan's nickname.
Mr Berry added that five days earlier he had heard the same voice when answering a call for David.
He went on to tell how the car re-started and after finally coming to another halt he was lifted out of the boot and saw the defendant Paul Johnson, part of his face being uncovered.
"PJ had a silver gun, pointing it at the side of my head.
"I was thinking 'come on, get it on, do it.' My phone started ringing. I don't know if I was laughing or crying," continued Mr Berry.
Mr Berry said he lay on some grass for five or ten minutes until it became too hot.
The car was on fire and he went around the vehicle shouting for his friendBent coppers.A JURY listened to a recording of the anguished cries for help of a man handcuffed and burnt to death in the boot of a blazing car.
David Barnshaw's pleas were caught on a 999 recording as a friend - taped up in the boot of the Ford Orion - tried to get help. Cries of 'No, no' could be heard on the recording.
The prosecution allege the 32-year-old was murdered amidst the backdrop of drug dealing in Stockport.
Preston Crown Court was told he victim and friend, John Berry, were abducted during a visit to the Moss Rose pub in Stockport back in September 1999.
Mr Berry was beaten and taped up but managed to contact police on his mobile phone, the opening day of the trial heard.
Driven two miles to an industrial estate, Mr Berry managed to escape. Mr Barnshaw was murdered at the site, although the court heard it's unclear exactly how he died.
Prosecutor Anthony Gee QC said: "Petrol was found not only in his lungs but also in his stomach giving rise to the view, together with other evidence, that not only was he alive at the time but that he might have been forced to drink petrol before the petrol was ignited.
"This was a murder carried out with premeditation, planning, with all the hallmarks of a gangland execution."
The prosecution allege the murder was committed to the background of drugs business in Stockport. Mr Gee told the court such a gang was headed by defendant Arran Coghlan, 30, formerly of Bramhall and now of Alderley Edge.
The prosecutor allege Mr Coghlan was fond of jewellery and bought gold chains as uniform for gang members.
Mr Coghlan and five other defendants deny murder.
The Teflon Don, indeed.FIVE men acquitted of murder have won a High Court challenge after police let one of Stockport's most senior police officers retire to avoid disciplinary proceedings.
Mr Justice Wilkie said allowing Detective Kenny Caldwell to retire, Greater Manchester police had failed to take into account Home Office guidance designed to maintain "public confidence in policing".
DCI Caldwell was held responsible for withholding vital evidence in the nine month, £5m, murder trial into the killing of David Barnshaw, 32, who was burnt to death in a car in September 1999.
The prosecution claimed he was the victim of a "gangland execution" connected to the Manchester drugs trade, but in June last year Mr Justice Penry-Davey halted the trial as an "abuse of process".
Aaron Coghlan, 31, from Alderley Edge, Neil Grice, 23, Stephen Beddows, 29, Phillip Moore, 40, all from Stockport and Dennis Burgess, 32, from Walkden, were all cleared and freed when the trial collapsed.
The Chief Constable, Michael Todd, ordered an external investigation by Lancashire police, but while it was still in its early stages DCI Caldwell retired in October 2003.
He was already suspended because of other allegations, but his suspension was lifted so he could retire after completing 30 years service. This meant no further disciplinary action could be taken against him.
Although it was agreed it was now too late to undo DCI Caldwell's retirement, the judge made a formal declaration the decision to lift his suspension, enabling his retirement, had been "unlawful".
He stopped short of saying it had been "impermissable" to allow DCI Caldwell to retire, saying the expense of keeping him on full pay during lengthy disciplinary proceedings had been rightly taken into account.
He also rejected claims police should have consulted the Police Complaints Authority before deciding to allow him to retire.
The judge concluded: "Accordingly, whilst it would have been open to Greater Manchester police to have lifted DCI Caldwell's suspension after proper consideration of all the relevant matters, its failure to have regard to this relevant matter means the decision it took was flawed.
"I therefore make the following declaration - the decision of the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester police on October 20 2003 to lift the suspension of DCI Caldwell imposed on September 15 2003 was unlawful." GMP were ordered to pay two-thirds of the legal costs bills run up by the five claimants, who were legally aided. The force was also refused permission to appeal against the judge's ruling, but may still go to the Court of Appeal.
Nicholas Blake, QC for the five, said: "The claimants, as the principle members of the public aggrieved by DCI Caldwell's misconduct and abuse of process, have and continue to have, a legitimate interest in seeing the Chief Constable behaves lawfully in such decisions.
"Having been deprived, by the abusive conduct of members of the Chief Constable's force, of the prospect of an acquittal on the merits of the grave charges brought against them, the claimants have now been deprived of just satisfaction by way of disciplinary proceedings for the misconduct."
The five's challenge was supported by the Independent Police Complaints Authority.
However, John Howell QC for the Chief Constable argued it was "reasonable" to allow DCI Caldwell to retire and to keep him on the force against his will would have "inhibited his freedom" and placed a financial burden on the tax payer.
He added DCI Caldwell could not "retire out" of the Lancashire police investigation or any criminal proceedings that might follow.
My money's on the CH lot catching up with him very soon.