David Harris offered £200,000 to have Hazel Allinson killed so that he could be with woman he met in a brothel

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A retired producer of TV drama The Bill has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for trying to hire three men to kill his partner so he could be with a woman he met at a brothel.

David Harris offered £200,000 to murder Hazel Allinson, his partner of 27 years, so he could inherit her fortune, sell her £800,000 home and live out his days with Ugne Cekaviciute, 28, from Lithuania.

The 68-year-old admitted he lied and amassed huge debt as he lavished expensive gifts on Cekaviciute, a former professional basketball player.

He denied wanting retired scriptwriter Allinson dead and claimed he only wanted to talk to hitmen as research for a murder-mystery novel, before he was caught in an undercover sting operation.

A jury rejected his explanation and found him guilty of three charges of soliciting murder.

On Friday at the Old Bailey Judge Anne Molyneux QC, sentenced Harris to 17 years in prison, to serve half in custody, half on licence under supervision.

During the sentencing, Anthony Rimmer, defending, said his client was no longer in a relationship with Cekaviciute and she was now “out of the picture”.

The court heard Harris was likely to have narcissistic personality disorder and still maintained that he was researching a novel. Harris, who needed hearing support throughout, showed no emotion as he was sentenced.

In February last year, Harris approached Chris May, a mechanic, for debt collection before offering him a deal for the hit on his partner. But May repeatedly tried to warn Allinson of the danger, by approaching her as she left the gym at Goodwood Health Club and by email.

Harris was then put in contact with Duke Dean – known as “Zed” – through a friend at Nooks cafe in Stratford, east London, near to where Cekaviciute had enrolled in college. Harris promised him £200,000 for the job, but in November last year Dean reported him to City of London police instead.

Zed introduced Harris to another prospective hitman, an undercover officer who called himself Chris, who secretly videoed the meeting in a Sainsbury’s car park in Balham, south London.

The next day, police burst into a room at the Balham Lodge hotel to arrest Harris and found him lying naked in bed with Cekaviciute. Giving evidence, Harris claimed he was researching a thriller entitled Too Close To Kill, based on his alter ego, Tom Noble, a wife called Holly – named after one of the family dogs – and a “sporty” young woman who worked in a brothel or cafe.

Sentencing Harris, the judge said: “For your pipe dream, for your obsessive infatuation with a young woman, Ms Allinson, who had protected and nurtured you was to die a painful and terrifying death in an isolated spot.

“Her death was to fund your life. You had used her until she has outlasted her usefulness to you. All that you wanted from her was that she should die and you should inherit her money.”

The trial had heard how Harris spent £50,000 of Allinson’s savings and used her reputation as a parish councillor and church chorister to borrow thousands of pounds from neighbours in the West Sussex village of Amberley.

He pawned a gold wristwatch and diamond ring and made up increasingly elaborate tales to keep Allinson in the dark while he travelled to London for meetings with Cekaviciute.

Harris pretended to umpire matches for Arundel Castle cricket club to be with Cekaviciute and also told Allinson he was tending to his sick brother in a psychiatric hospital.

In a show of “complete contempt”, Harris sneaked Cekaviciute into Allinson’s home and photographed her posing naked on a bed with Allinson’s three spaniels, jurors heard.



After sentencing, DCI Edelle Michaels, of the City of London police, said: “This has been a hugely difficult time for the victim, who has been significantly affected.

“Things could have been far worse if Harris has succeeded with his plan, and there was an element of good fortune that one of the men Harris approached informed the police, prompting our swift response to ensure the safety of Harris’s intended victim.”