Tingley shootings: Three men deny attempted murder at caravan park

Three family members tried to kill two other men by shooting them after a day of violence, a court has been told.

Richard Bathie, 52, and Joshua Bathie, 18, a father and son from East Ardsley in Leeds, travelled in convoy with Richard Bathie's cousin Shaun McDermott, 35, to a caravan park on 8 August 2021, the prosecution said.

Mr McDermott used a shotgun to try and kill another two men, a jury heard.

At Leeds Crown Court, the three denied two charges of attempted murder.

Shaun McDermott, of Batley Road, and Richard and Joshua Bathie also denied one count of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Joshua Bathie further denied possessing a bladed article in public.

The court heard that the "group of armed men" had travelled in a "planned expedition" to a caravan park near the M62 in Tingley after a "series of violent incidents" earlier in the day.

They began with a fight at a christening party at a Dewsbury golf club, the jury was told.

It was claimed one male guest at the party was "set upon" and beaten up by the three men in the golf club's car park, moving onto a nearby road.

That provoked a second incident involving two other men on the driveway of Shaun McDermott's house on Batley Road, the prosecution said.

During that incident, Mr McDermott was hit over the head with a bottle.

Mr McDermott subsequently "sought reinforcements for his own revenge attack" involving Richard and Joshua Bathie.

The father and son arrived "bare-chested and fired up" and Joshua Bathie was armed with a machete, the jury was told.

Joshua Bathie was alleged to have shouted he was "going to kill" the two men, while Richard Bathie shouted he was going to get his gun in what the prosecution described as "not empty threats".

After travelling to the caravan park in Tingley, Shaun McDermott fired at the two men they had been seeking "at close range" and it was "only by luck not judgement" that both survived, the court heard.

A fourth man, Edward Senior, 25, of Dewsbury Road, Tingley, denied one count of assisting an offender.

The trial continues.

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