Murder-accused saw two guns before killing, court hears

A woman who denies murdering a 40-year-old mother shot dead in Talbot Green has told a court she saw two guns in a house where an alleged murder plot was hatched.

Joanne Penney died within minutes of being shot in Talbot Green near Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, on 9 March.

Five people deny murder, while a sixth person, Marcus Huntley, 21, from St Mellons, Cardiff, changed his plea earlier in the trial and admits shooting Ms Penney.

Melissa Quailey-Dashper told Cardiff Crown Court she had agreed to accompany two men from Cardiff, who she said she had never met before, to knock the door of a house to reclaim drugs and money.

Earlier that day she had travelled down from Leicester along with drug dealer Joshua Gordon, his girlfriend Kristina Ginova and driver Tony Porter.

After spending some hours at an address in Cardiff, where Melissa Quailey-Dashper said she saw two guns on a table, she said she travelled in a car with Mr Huntley, Jordan Mills-Smith, Mr Porter and Mr Gordon.

Ms Quailey-Dashper told the court she had no idea a gun would be used in Talbot Green and had not seen one during the journey from Cardiff.

In police interviews after her arrest in her home town of Leicester the day after the murder, she told police that she may have had "a vague idea that someone had been shot" although she also thought the loud noise "could have been a firework".

Ms Quailey-Dashper said there was no discussion of the incident in the car on the return journey to Cardiff, and that neither Mr Gordon or Mr Porter knew anything about the possibility of a shot being fired.

Mr Gordon, 27, Mr Porter, 69, Ms Quailey-Dashper, 40, and Ms Ginova, 21, all from Leicester, and Mr Mills-Smith, 33, from Cardiff, deny murder.