The discovery of an iPad found caked in mud on the foreshore of the River Thames led to the untangling of an international web of organised crime. The item found downstream of the O2 Arena in southeast London was a key piece of evidence in an investigation which culminated in three people being found guilty of plotting to kill a former cagefighter convicted of Britain's largest cash robbery.

The iPad itself was found by a police officer with a metal detector in November last year and had been underwater for over five years, according to the BBC. It was cleaned up and found to still contain a Vodafone Sim card, which contained damning call data evidence on three men.

Paul Allen was paralysed for life after shots were fired at his rented home in Woodford Green, north-east London, in 2019. The large, detached house was owned by comedian Russell Kane.

Louis Ahearne, 36, his brother Stewart Ahearne, 46, and Daniel Kelly, 46, were found guilty at the Old Bailey on Monday (March 24) of plotting to murder Allen with unknown others.

Jurors heard Allen was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court in 2009 for his part in Britain's biggest armed robbery, at Securitas in Kent in which £54million in cash was stolen, much of which has never been recovered.

By 2019, Allen had been released from prison and moved from south London to north-east London where he lived with his partner and young children. The court heard how the defendants had planned the shooting carefully, carried out surveillance and fitted a tracker device to the victim's car to track his movements.

The defendants travelled from their neighbourhood in the Woolwich area of south-east London, through the Blackwall Tunnel, to the victim's new home in Malvern Drive in a car hired two days earlier by Stewart Ahearne.

While Stewart Ahearne waited in the car, Kelly and Louis Ahearne snuck into a garden overlooking Mr Allen's back garden. At around 11.09pm, six shots were fired through the back doors and windows, striking Mr Allen in the neck as he stood in the kitchen. According to the BBC, one bullet passed through his throat and lodged itself in his spinal cord. The men fled back to the waiting car, which sped off, leaving their victim fighting for his life.

During the police investigation, DNA was recovered from the garden fence which matched that of Kelly and Louis Ahearne. Bullet casings in the garden were matched to a Glock handgun which was compatible with a laser sight recovered from Kelly's address. Further CCTV evidence picked up the hire car driven by Stewart Ahearne.

The court also heard the three men had snatched Ming dynasty antiques worth more than £2.78million ($3.5m) from a Swiss museum shortly before the murder plot. Jurors heard agreed facts about the defendants' "previous criminality" relating to a burglary at the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva on June 1, 2019, a month before Allen was shot.

Three pieces of Ming-era porcelain were taken from the museum, which had a combined insurance value of £2,760,000 ($3,580,000). The items were an early 15th century bottle with a secret pomegranate decoration; a small wine cup known as the "chicken cup" and a 14th century An Huan phoenix design bowl.

The defendants flew to Hong Kong on June 14, 2019, where they attempted to sell the phoenix bowl at an auction house. Stewart Ahearne was eventually arrested with another man at a London hotel as they tried to sell the Ming vase to an undercover police officer on October 16, 2020.

A later search of a property revealed a passport in the name of Stewart Ahearne and a book on Ming dynasty antiques, the court was told. The brothers were extradited from Switzerland to face trial for the shooting.

Jurors were also told how two of the defendants were also involved in another burglary in Sevenoaks in Kent, the day before Allen was shot. The Renault Captur hired by Stewart Ahearne from a dealership in Dartford, Kent, was used by the other two defendants in a burglary on a gated community in the county, the court was told.

Louis Ahearne, from Greenwich, south-east London, and Stewart Ahearne and Kelly, both of no fixed address, had denied the charge against them. They were remanded into custody to be sentenced by Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC at the Old Bailey on April 25. Reacting to the verdicts in the dock, Stewart Ahearne shouted to the jury: "You are only human. That's all I have to say about that."

Det Supt Matt Webb from Scotland Yard said: "This attack may look like the plot to a Hollywood blockbuster, but the reality is something quite different. This was horrific criminality. The court heard how this was a clear and defined attempt to take a man's life with those responsible making significant efforts to ensure this was successful.

"Daniel Kelly, Louis and Stewart Ahearne will now undoubtedly face significant custodial sentences and I hope this time at His Majesty's pleasure provides them the opportunity to reflect on their criminality and the impact it has on society."