Mark Connor

Mark Connor was executed with a gunshot to the head at his flat in Claire Court, Shoot Up Hill, on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2001.

A man was tried for his murder at the Old Baily in 2001 but the case collapsed after the prosecution didn't produce enough evidence.

His body was found fully clothed in a bath full of water, shot in the back of the head, three days after he was last seen. He had also been beaten about the head and had six wounds to the back and side of it thought to have been caused by a blunt instrument such as the butt of a handgun. It was said that he had been put in the bath after he died.

His girlfriend, who lived at another one of Mark Connor's properties said that when she last saw him three days earlier he had left telling her that he had business to attend to and that she didn't see or hear from him again. She said that after she hadn't heard from him for a number of days she became worried and went round to his flat in Shoot Up Hill. They had been seeing each other for eight years after having met in Dublin.

His death was said to have been an execution style murder and that a pillow had been put to the back of his head which was then shot through. It was thought that he had been shot on 11 February 2001.

Mark Connor had three houses and was thought to have been involved in drug smuggling and tobacco importation as well as some kind of fraud. During the police operation it was found that Mark Connor, who was Irish, had previously lived in Dublin where he was described as the biggest drug dealer in west Dublin before he moved to London. It was said in 2012 that it was thought that he had been involved with a drug smuggler in Liverpool who was at that time serving 13 years for trafficking cocaine.

Shortly after Mark Connor was found dead it was found that his girlfriend, who found his body, had burnt some of his documents that related to the fraud he was involved with and had also walked off with two cheques for £17,500. Four days after finding Mark Connor's body she also admitted to the police that when she had gone to the flat she had gone with two other people and that they had tried to remove a bloodstained footprint from the carpet that one of the men had left. She said that she panicked and took a couple of letters and some birth certificates that Mark Connor had in false names which she then burned at another one of Mark Connor's properties in Shoot Up Hill.

She was convicted of perverting the course of justice but said that she had acted in panic and was given a conditional discharge.

She also said that she knew that Mark Connor had been involved in a scheme to smuggle cigarettes into the UK and that he had been told to raise £20,000 and to give it to a certain person but said that the cigarettes never materialised.

Mark Connor had also used a number of other names including Peter John Joyce, Lawrence Ellis, Stitch, and Gerard Anthony Arbuckle.

The police later said that they believed the key to solving the mystery behind his murder lay in Dublin.