John Francis Dunne

John Francis Dunne was shot at a travellers site in Erdington on the night of Friday 24 May 1996.

A 53-year-old man was tried but acquitted after the judge said there was no case to answer.

John Dunne had been a traveller from a site in Bankfield Road, Bilston and he and his family had had a feud with another family. John Dunne had been single.

The man tried said that he had shot John Dunne accidently when he came to his caravan site in Holly Lane, Erdington in May 1996, armed.

The man said that he had been the only male member of his family at the site at the time and that he had feared for their safety and that he had only intended to scare John Dunne when he fired his gun, stating that he had been petrified and that it was just pot luck that the shot hit him.

The prosecution stated that the man had been invited to shoot at them by John Dunne's family when they arrived as he emerged from behind one of the caravans.

The man had said:

The shot had hit John Dunne point blank range in the heart.

The initial newspaper report following the incident described John Dunne's body as having been found dead on waste ground following an argument between a group of travellers.