Pensioner in parking row 'died after attackers used police computer to track him down'

A pensioner involved in a row about a parking space collapsed and died within minutes of a revenge attack after his alleged killers used a policeman to trace his address, a court heard yesterday.

Bernard Gilbert, 79, was targeted for revenge after arguing with shopper Zoe Forbes when she "nipped into" his space at an Asda supermarket.

A jury heard Mrs Forbes, 26, immediately phoned her husband Mark, who told her to write down the pensioner's registration plate.

The couple plotted their revenge and Forbes even sent his wife a text message promising: "We'll smash his car to bits and then his hire car and then whatever he gets after that until he dies."

Nottingham Crown Court heard Forbes, 40, contacted a friend who knew a policeman. The officer typed Mr Gilbert's number plate into the police national computer to find his address.

Four days after the row, Forbes and his brother, Steven, 22, drove to Mr Gilbert's bungalow and threw half a brick through the bedroom window. The pensioner died of a heart attack within 35 minutes.

Prosecutor Michael Auty said: "Mr Gilbert had a verbal altercation with Zoe Forbes over, of all things, a car-parking space at an Asda store.

"Mr Gilbert took the view that Mrs Forbes had 'nipped into' his parking space - and, to use colloquial terms, he 'blew his stack' at her."

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Mr Auty said Mr Gilbert's behaviour at the Asda store in Spondon, Derbyshire, last January could have been considered "over-the-top, abusive and insulting" to Mrs Forbes and other shoppers reported that she was left "extremely shaken".

The court heard her first reaction was to phone her husband, who was "infuriated" by her treatment and immediately began to plot a revenge attack.

He told her to make a note of Mr Gilbert's number plate and asked a friend who knew a police officer to see if the policeman could track down Mr Gilbert's address.

In a text message the following day, Forbes told his wife that he had "someone on to it".

The message added: "Fingers crossed, I'll get an address. Then we'll smash his car to bits - and then his hire car and then whatever he gets after that until he dies."

Forbes - who bought Stanley knives to slash Mr Gilbert's tyres and balaclavas to wear during the attack - received the reply: "Okay, sweetie-pie."

In another text, sent to his wife on the eve of the attack, he said: "I just hope no-one comes out, because the mood I'm in I'll knock the f*** out of him."

Mr Auty told the jury: "A police officer misusing a police computer gives a friend of Mark Forbes most of the address. And that friend passes on the information to Mark Forbes."

The court heard the Forbes brothers targeted Mr Gilbert's bungalow in a quiet cul-de-sac in Spondon on January 28 as the pensioner and his wife of 55 years, Betty, were watching a wildlife programme on TV.

Mrs Gilbert told police she heard a noise "like a bomb going off" as the missile was hurled through the double-glazed window.

With Mr Gilbert, a retired Rolls Royce aero worker, already "ashen and shaken", the couple dialled 999 and also contacted two of their three grown-up children, who lived nearby.

Mr Gilbert realised the incident was connected to the row at Asda and began to search for his note of Mrs Forbes' number plate.

But moments later he slumped in a chair - and was dead by the time a paramedic arrived.

Mr Auty told the court approximately 35 minutes elapsed between the brick being thrown through the window and Mr Gilbert dying.

Mr Gilbert, who was already on medication for diabetes, high blood-pressure and high cholesterol, was later found to have been suffering from angina.

Mr Auty said experts believed there was a 50 per cent probability the previously undiagnosed condition might have killed him within 12 months.

Mark Forbes and Zoe Forbes, of Ripley, Derbyshire, and Steven Forbes, of South Normanton, Derbyshire, deny manslaughter.

Steven Forbes, who later confessed to throwing the brick, has admitted a charge of criminal damage.

The court heard all three initially denied targeting Mr Gilbert but admitted they had done so after they were confronted with text-message evidence.

The trial continues.