A ‘complex investigation’ led to a series of arrests including the ex-wife of Danny Cahalane
Danny Cahalane died in hospital after being sprayed with sulphuric acid(Image: Devon and Cornwall Police)
A jury was told that the ex-wife of Danny Cahalane, who died after being sprayed with corrosive sulphuric acid over an alleged drug debt, had lied to police and to him about her involvement in an organised crime group’s plans to target him.
The trial of ten people – seven men from London and three women from Plymouth – continued this afternoon (January 23) at Winchester Crown Court with lead prosecutor Joanne Martin KC highlighting the weeks leading up to his alleged attempted kidnapping on January 19, 2025, in Oreston, the acid attack at his front door on February 21, 2025 and his death a few weeks later on May 3, at the age just 38.
The jury was previously told that Danny was a “drug dealer in Plymouth who owed a large amount of money to another drug dealer further up the chain of command” – suggesting it was around £120,000 in total.
During the morning part of today’s hearing, the jury was reminded of the drug boss Ryan Kennedy – known as Frost – who had repeatedly demanded the money from Danny, issuing a series of threats and eventually telling the Plymouth father “you’re gonna die”.
Ms Martin KC had also highlighted a series of messages between Paris Wilson, who is Danny’s ex-wife, and her mother which suggested she was fully aware of Frost’s anger and how she was being offered money to tell him where Danny was.
Paris Wilson – charged with conspiracy to murder Danny Cahalane – attends Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on April 24, 2025 (Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)
The jury was told by Ms Martin KC that the prosecution’s case was that there was “no doubt at all that Paris Wilson set Danny up; no doubt at all that she told Frost exactly where Danny would be at about 10am on Sunday, January 19” as only she knew where he would be at that time, having arranged it with him.
During this afternoon’s hearing, the jury saw a series of spreadsheets which noted a mix of telephone calls and messages between a number of the accused, including Jean Mukuna and Bakas Sithole, who were in touch with each other on January 9, 2025. As soon as their call finishes, Jean Mukuna called his brother Arrone and a couple of hours later Bakas Sithole calls Arrone. Later that evening there were multiple further calls between Bakas Sithole and the Mukuna brothers.
Ms Martin KC said that the calls could have been “entirely innocent” and have nothing to do with them being part of an organised crime group.
She had earlier told the jury that the term “Organised Crime Group” could describe a gang “like the traditional Sicilian Mafia” or Chinese Triads as seen on TV. She said it could be an “international” gang spread across a number of countries involved in a number of illegal business practices such as importing drugs, human trafficking or money laundering.
However, she said the legal definition under the Serious Crime Act 2015 was “at least three people acting together or agreeing to act together to carry on a serious criminal activity.” She said that everything that went with the supply of drugs, including the violent enforcement of drug debts, was serious criminal activity.
Ms Martin KC went on to explain that wherever the participant fell in the chain, whichever level they were at, and for however long they were taking part, they were “in some way, taking part in an organised crime gang’s criminal activity”. She said that while everybody charged did not know each other, they were all “one way or another” connected to Frost “either directly or indirectly”.
Winchester Crown Court in Hampshire(Image: Corin Messer)
She said the focus of this case – just the first two months of 2025 – only offered a “snapshot” of Frost’s gang’s activities. While Adedoja and Bakas-Sithole were effectively Frost’s “lieutenants”, Kelvin Asante – who was arrested on Monday – was described by the prosecution as the “main enforcer” for the group, whose job was to ensure drug debts were paid or “ensure the debtor knew exactly what would befall them if the debt was not paid”.
She said that Augustus, Sungum, Kalemba, and the Mukuna brothers did not appear to have an obvious link to Frost, but they did have “significant connections” to his lieutenants.
While Wilson was Danny’s ex-wife, Ms Martin KC said Jude Hill’s connection with Frost went “way back” as she had been in a relationship with another man and had a son with him. The man was friends with Danny and was “at the very least” an associate of Frost. The man and their son had both got into debt with Frost and had “also suffered the consequences”.
Hill’s sister had been in a relationship with Danny previously and they had also had a son. At the time of these events in Plymouth, Jude Hill had been in Thailand, later telling police that this was because her house and car had been the subject of an arson attack on September 23, 2024.
Ms Martin KC explained that while no one was ever caught, Hill made it clear to police that she believed Frost was behind the attack.
The jury was told that while in Thailand, Hill had been involved in supplying cannabis to the UK. The prosecution could not say whether that was on the orders of Frost, but investigations found that Hill and Frost had been in contact in the days before the acid attack on Danny on February 21, 2025.
Ms Martin KC said that Hill, in turn, had got her cousin Jenna Said – also known as Jenna O’Grady – involved. Described as the “least involved” she was asked, in exchange for money, to house the two men who came to Plymouth to attack Danny with acid. The jury was told that she knew they were coming down from London in relation to drugs or the collection of money.
Noting the phone records and messages, Ms Martin KC showed the jury how on January 17, a couple of days before the alleged attempt kidnap in Oreston, Jean Mukuna sent his brother a message: “I’ve got a mission wiv Ramz [Bakas Sithole] be ready for 11” before sending a postcode for Kelvin Asante’s address.
Just 40 minutes later, Asante called Danny’s number twice. It was suggested Asante got the number from Frost.
Minutes later Asante messaged Jean Mukuna telling him “don’t fly yet, I’m waiting for an addy [an address]. When I get it we’ll fly””.
The jury was told that while these messages were going back and forth, Paris Wilson was making arrangements to attend her home in The Quay, Oreston, to drop off a person, who is not being identified due to legal restrictions.
The Quay, Oreston(Image: Google Street View)
The next day, the day before the events in Oreston, Asante sent a message to Jean Mukuna saying “just me and you tmrw (tomorrow)”.
After more calls and messages, Asante messaged Jean Mukuna with directions from his home to The Quay, Oreston – the address of Paris Wilson – and suggested they leave at 5.30am, and to bring “ski”, which the prosecution suggested was Jean’s brother, Arrone.
Further messages about pick-up times were shown to the jury. They were told that Jean Mukuna put the Oreston postcode into a navigation app called Waze at around 4am that morning before travelling in a Hyundai registered to the Mukuna brothers’ parents. The jury was shown a map highlighting the phones of Asante, Jean Mukuna and Arrone Mukuna ‘pinging’ on phone masts from London, along the M4 and M5 to Bristol and then to Plymouth on January 19.
CCTV footage from a nearby pub on The Quay, Oreston, showed how the three men approached Danny’s car and attempted to open the door. Danny drove off at speed.
Ms Martin KC told the jury that while the execution of the plan had failed, the purpose was clear, saying it was done “with malicious intent.”
She explained: “Those three men were not just there to have a quiet word with Danny. They had not travelled all that way just to have a quiet word. They were there to put the frighteners on Danny, to follow through on Frost’s threats of serious harm, death, being got at.” She said the prosecution’s case was that their “obvious intention” was either to kidnap him or cause him really serious harm.
Police on scene guard following acid attack incident in Lipson Road, Plymouth(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)
She highlighted Frost’s message to Danny moments later, saying “close call,” followed up by saying he would burn his house down and his mother’s house down. Messages between Bakas Sithole and both Asante and Jean Mukuna as they travelled back to London included one telling them “make sure you go back to Rockingham [an estate in London] when you done”.
A few hours later, Danny received a video from Frost of his mother’s front door in Rotherhite, London, captioned “you have a couple of hours”. The prosecution’s case was that one of the three men who had gone to Plymouth and back to London had filmed the front door and sent it to Frost to use.
Ms Martin KC said Frost’s message to Danny was “clear”. She said Frost wanted Danny to know he knew how to find him and his mum and that he could target his mum if he wanted.
The jury heard that immediately after these events, Paris Wilson, who had spoken to her mother a few days before about setting Danny up at her address, then sent a number of messages, which prosecutors suggested were lies to hide her involvement.
She asked Danny how two black men knew her address, telling him not to bring his “s***” to her house. She told him that if he thought she had anything to do with it, he was “insane”. She told him she was going to the police and even wrote to her mother saying “there were some black guys here who tried to grab Dan”. She even told her mother, “it genuinely wasn’t me… but now I’m scared people know my address”
While police did receive a 999 call from a dog walker who was near The Quay when the alleged attempted kidnapping took place, and even received a photo of the car, the jury was told police did not have enough to go on to investigate further.
However, following the acid attack on February 21, police found forensic evidence which led to Asante, which in turn led them to calls made on his phone and CCTV evidence, which in turn led them to Augustus, who was arrested on March 4 in Tottenham. Evidence from both Asante’s call records and Augustus’s physical phone led the police to the London-based defendants and then back to Jenna Said and Jude Hill.
Israel Augustus – accused of acid attack in Lipson Road, arriving at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on Saturday March 8, 2025(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)
Meanwhile, evidence from Danny’s phone and Karen Wilson’s phone led them to his ex-wife, Paris Wilson.
Ms Martin KC said it was a “complex investigation”, with the defendants being arrested at different times, some giving comment in interviews, other giving prepared statements.
However, she told the jury that Wilson had spoken with police after the February 21 incident, due to being his ex-wife. She was called by the police to come to Danny’s home. Police, unaware of her alleged connection to the incident, asked her questions on the basis that she was a witness.
She gave a statement highlighting the incident outside her home on January 19, how Danny’s car had been approached by two black men. She suggested they had “malicious intent” and said she suspected it was due to a drug debt, claiming that she knew Danny was involved in such things and that he owed money to someone.
She said she did not know who the men were and her statement, signed by her as truthful, suggested she had no idea why they were there and that the black men being there was a complete surprise.
When she was eventually arrested on March 12 she was interviewed. She was rearrested on April 23 and during interview she admitted that the statement following the acid attack was a lie.
The jury was told that Paris admitted to the police that she had told Frost her address, and told him when Danny would be there. The jury heard Paris told investigators: “I didn’t want Social Services to think that I knew anything about crime, full stop. Let alone about this kind of level of organised crime that this was.”
The jury heard that during her interviews with police Paris said that while she had been in contact with Frost and clearly knew what Frost was like, she did not realise who would turn up nor what they might try to do to Danny.
Police on scene guard following acid attack incident in Lipson Road, Plymouth(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)
Ms Martin KC said Paris told police she “didn’t want Danny to be hurt.”
The jury heard that Arrone Mukuna would not say who told him to go to Plymouth, but did say that they were going to collect money and were told to wait until Danny’s passenger was in the house before another one of the group – believed to be Asante – said something about “grabbing him”.
The jury was told Bakas Sithole answered no comment to every question in his interview and did not provide any prepared statement. But in his defence case statement he said that he knew Adedoja, the Mukuna brothers and Asante and that while he became aware that Asante was going to Plymouth on January 19 with the Mukuna’s to get money he played no part in organising the trip.
A total of 10 defendants – seven men from London and three women from Plymouth – are on trial, with seven of these accused of Mr Cahalane’s murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter, on May 3, 2025.
They are Paris Wilson, 35, of The Quay, Plymouth; Jude Hill, 43, of Wantage Gardens, Plymouth; Abdulrasheed Adedoja, 23, of Neasden, London; Ramarnee Bakas-Sithole, 23, of Islington, London; Israel Augustus, aged 26, of Tottenham, London; Isanah Sungum, 22, of Edmonton, London; and Brian Kalemba, 23, of Barking, London.
Five of the defendants are charged with the attempted kidnapping and attempted grievous bodily harm of Mr Cahalane on January 19 2025, at The Quay in Oreston, Plymouth. They are Adedoja, Bakas-Sithole and Wilson along with Jean Mukuna, 23, and Arrone Mukuna, 25, both of Camden, London.
Nine of the defendants are also charged with being involved in an organised crime gang involved in the supply of drugs, including enforcement of drug debts, between January 1, 2025, and April 11, 2025. They are Adedoja, Bakas-Sithole, Augustus, Wilson, Sungum, Kalemba, Jean and Arrone Mukuna and Jenna Said, 39, of Ernesettle Green, Plymouth.
All ten deny the charges.
The trial continues