Prosecution starts opening its case in trial of five for 'murder' of Banbury's Keith Green

Mark Meadows, 25, was said by prosecutor Vanessa Marshall KC to have euphemistically termed alleged victim Keith Green ‘one big problem’ in messages sent three-and-a-half months before the 40-year-old’s death.

Opening the case against Meadows, his half-brother Travis Gorton, 20, lover Louise Grieve, 38, her son 20-year-old Callum Johnson and a youth who cannot be identified for legal reasons, Ms Marshall told jurors at Oxford Crown Court that all had been involved in Mr Green’s murder.

“In the late hours of February 13 this year, Meadows along with his half-brother Gorton gained access to the outbuilding at the bottom of the garden of Louise Grieve and her partner Keith Green’s house at 42 Howard Road in Banbury,” she said.

“And, once inside those outbuildings, Meadows and Gorton turned off the CCTV camera that would have recorded the imminent attack that they had planned and lay in wait for [Mr] Green to appear.

“And when [Mr] Green did appear, as had been expected, Meadows and Gorton stabbed him to death.”

Travis Gorton (in grey suit) and Mark Meadows (in black suit) outside Oxford Crown Court Picture: OM (Image: Oxford Mail)

Ms Marshall pulled two knives, encased in clear plastic, from beneath her desk to audible gasps from the public gallery.

She claimed Grieve, Johnson and the youth ‘provided assistance and or encouragement to the killing so as to make them along with Meadows and Gorton guilty of the murder of [Mr] Green’.

Jurors were told that Meadows and Grieve had been in a fling since at least summer 2021. They travelled to Leeds in August that year, where the former paid almost £60 for two knives. Meadows’ ex-partner would later tell the police that he was keen on US zombie apocalypse TV drama The Walking Dead and she believed he bought the knife ‘to keep him safe’, the prosecutor said.

Grieve’s relationship with Mr Green, with whom she had two children, was on-off over the autumn and winter. He was said to have moved out to a friend’s flat until she turned up at the property before Christmas and asked him to return home, the jury heard.

But Ms Marshall claimed Grieve kept up her affair with Meadows, who was more than a dozen years her junior, and the couple continued to send messages expressing their ‘love’ and meeting clandestinely.

Louise Grieve outside Oxford Crown Court Picture: OM (Image: Oxford Mail)

She ‘fuelled’ his animosity towards Mr Green, insinuating that he had struck her, Ms Marshall said.

In September 2021, Mr Green had been the one to strike Meadows after finding him at the property in Howard Road, the court was told. “Took three [punches],” the younger lover told his sister after the incident on September 26. Earlier that summer, Meadows allegedly told his half-brother that Mr Green 'wanted him dead'. 

The jury was told that a month later, on October 27, he described his love rival as ‘one big problem that's in the way’. 

And over Christmas, he was said to have spoken to his brother about ‘sourcing one’, which Ms Marshall suggested was a reference to a gun. 

Meadows’ then housemate and a colleague at Amazon, Ryan Cope, said the defendant had tried to buy a firearm on the Dark Web – specifying he wanted a ‘9mm with a silencer’. In early February, Meadows allegedly told Mr Cope on the phone that he had bought a gun for £150.

Ms Marshall is expected to conclude the prosecution’s opening statement this morning.

Meadows, of Rees Court, Banbury, Gorton, of Well Bank, Hook Norton, Grieve and Johnson, of Howard Road, Banbury, and the youth all deny murder. Meadows and Gorton have also pleaded not guilty to possession of a bladed article. The trial continues.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward