A stolen Ming vase from a Swiss museum. A shooting at a comedian’s home in Woodford, East London. A luxury apartment robbery in Sevenoaks, Kent.
At first glance, these incidents seemed unrelated. But they were all threads in a vast web of international organized crime—one that took police six years to unravel.
The breakthrough? An iPad, buried under an inch of sand on the Thames foreshore, just downstream from the O2 Arena.
This unexpected discovery proved crucial to the case, ultimately leading to the conviction of three people at the Old Bailey for the near-assassination of one of Britain’s most infamous armed robbers.
#1The Lost iPad: How a Mud-Caked Device Exposed an International Crime Ring
On a cold November morning last year, a police officer sweeping the Thames foreshore with a metal detector made an unexpected find—an iPad, caked in mud after spending more than five years underwater.
Forensic experts painstakingly cleaned the device and opened its SIM tray, revealing a pink Vodafone SIM card still intact. When investigators recovered call data from the card, they uncovered damning evidence linking three men—Louis Ahearne, Stewart Ahearne, and Daniel Kelly—not only to a near-fatal shooting but also to a daring museum heist in Switzerland just a month earlier.
Det. Supt. Matthew Webb reflects on their downfall: “I’ve questioned this a lot. Was it sheer incompetence that tripped them up, or were they simply so brazen they thought they’d never get caught?”
#2The Woodford Shooting: A Botched Hit That Exposed a Criminal Empire
The Ahearne brothers and Daniel Kelly first landed on police radar after gunshots shattered the quiet of a summer evening in affluent Woodford on July 11, 2019.
Six bullets ripped through the glass conservatory of a luxury home—owned by comedian Russell Kane but rented to Paul Allen. One bullet severed Allen’s finger. Another tore through his throat, lodging in his spinal cord, leaving him gasping for air and bleeding profusely.
"He’s been shot! He’s been shot!" his partner, Jade Bovington, screamed in panic.
This near-fatal attack would become the key to unraveling a sprawling web of organized crime.
#3From Heist to Horror: How Britain’s Biggest Robbery Mastermind Became the Target
As Jade Bovington frantically called for an ambulance, neighbors and a private security guard rushed to help.
An eyewitness recalled seeing an unidentified man vault over a low wall, dash through some bushes, and jump into a waiting vehicle that sped off instantly.
To this day, Paul Allen remains paralyzed from the upper chest down, confined to a wheelchair.
Allen first gained notoriety as one of the masterminds behind Britain’s largest armed robbery. In 2006, he was part of a balaclava-clad gang armed with guns—including an AK-47—that stormed the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent. They stole £53 million in Bank of England notes, leaving behind an additional £154 million that couldn’t fit in their lorry.
Four days later, Allen fled to Morocco but was arrested in Rabat alongside fellow robber Lee Murray, who remains imprisoned in Tiflet. Extradited to the UK in January 2008, Allen was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Released in 2016, he returned to south-east London, but danger followed him. In September 2018, a gunman opened fire at him and his pregnant daughter outside their Woolwich home. In response, Allen moved to Woodford with his partner and two young children, seeking safety.
But just ten months later, that sense of security shattered. Two bullets struck him as he stood in his kitchen—nearly ending his life.
#4The Assassination Plot: How a Murder Attempt Unraveled a Cross-Border Crime Network
Prosecutors argued that the Ahearne brothers and Daniel Kelly were equally responsible for the attempted murder of Paul Allen—a meticulously planned operation involving a rented car, covert surveillance, and untraceable pay-as-you-go phones.
"This was a carefully researched and well-orchestrated assassination attempt by a team of men deeply familiar with the criminal underworld," prosecutor Michael Shaw KC stated.
As investigators dug deeper to uncover how the trio knew Allen’s whereabouts, they stumbled upon something far bigger—their criminal activities extended far beyond the UK, reaching into mainland Europe.
#5The Geneva Heist and the Mayfair Hotel Sting: Inside an International Crime Operation
Just one month before the shooting, the Ahearne brothers and Daniel Kelly stood outside the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva—armed with a sledgehammer, angle grinders, and crowbars.
Within seconds, they forced their way through the front door, shattering glass cases that housed priceless 14th-century Chinese Ming Dynasty antiques. Their haul included a rare pomegranate vase, a doucai-style wine cup, and a porcelain bowl—together insured at £2.8 million.
In their frantic escape, Stewart Ahearne scraped his stomach on the jagged edges of the broken wooden door, leaving behind critical DNA evidence. He also made another fatal mistake—renting the getaway car, a Renault Koleos, from Avis at Geneva Airport. Meanwhile, Louis Ahearne was caught on CCTV the day before the raid, discreetly filming both the museum's interior and exterior.
These small but crucial missteps would later play a key role in unraveling their criminal network.
Within days of returning to southeast London with their stolen treasures, the Ahearne brothers and Daniel Kelly wasted no time trying to offload their illicit haul.
The trio flew to Hong Kong, attempting to sell one of the stolen antiques at an auction house. But their plan quickly unraveled—the auction house grew suspicious and tipped off police in London.
Seizing the opportunity, authorities set up a sting operation. Undercover officers, posing as art dealers, moved in on other gang members as they attempted to sell another stolen artifact—concealed in a JD Sports bag.
What started as a high-stakes heist was now spiraling into a web of law enforcement traps, inching the criminals closer to capture.
#6From International Heists to a Botched Hit: How the Ahearne Gang Sealed Their Fate
During a seven-week trial at the Old Bailey, prosecutors argued that the Ahearne brothers and Daniel Kelly weren’t just petty criminals—they operated at the top tier of organized crime, orchestrating high-stakes burglaries across international borders.
But as police pursued the stolen antiquities, they had no idea the trio would make the same crucial mistakes elsewhere. Just as they had left behind incriminating evidence in the Geneva heist, they repeated their errors in Woodford—unwittingly handing investigators the very clues needed to link them to the near-fatal shooting.
#7The Rental Car and the DNA Trail: How a Simple Mistake Unraveled the Woodford Shooting
In the hours following the Woodford shooting, forensic experts meticulously combed the crime scene. They recovered six bullet casings from a Glock self-loading handgun and discovered scuff marks on the rear garden fence—right where the shots had been fired.
Crucially, DNA samples collected from the fence were later linked to Louis Ahearne and Daniel Kelly.
Police then sifted through CCTV footage, eventually identifying a silver-grey Renault Captur linked to the attack. Rental records traced it back to Avis, where it had been hired by Stewart Ahearne from a Dartford branch just two days before the shooting—and returned the very next day.
What the gang thought was a flawless hit was quickly unraveling, piece by piece.
#8A Costly Mistake: How a Thirsty Burglar and a Stolen Getaway Car Led to Their Undoing
Further CCTV analysis uncovered a critical blunder—just 90 minutes before the shooting, the Renault Captur pulled into a Shell garage on Shooters Hill Road near Greenwich Park.
"They stopped at a petrol station because Louis Ahearne was thirsty," prosecutor Michael Shaw told the court.
But their thirst proved costly. "The problem with petrol stations is they have very good CCTV," Shaw added.
The same Renault Captur had been used just two days earlier in another crime. Kelly and Louis Ahearne, driven by Stewart, traveled to Ide Hill Hall—a lavish 16th-century mansion-turned-luxury-apartments in Sevenoaks, Kent.
Posing as police officers, complete with a flashing blue light on their car, the trio and another man forced their way into the gated property, stealing designer goods. They were later convicted of burglary and attempted burglary at Maidstone Crown Court.
On July 10, just a day before the shooting, Stewart Ahearne was back behind the wheel of the Renault, driving through parts of East London—including Bethnal Green, Snaresbrook, and Woodford.
A closer look at traffic cameras revealed the Renault following a silver Mercedes—the vehicle belonging to the Allens.
But while investigators had traced their movements, one mystery remained: How did they know where to find Paul Allen? The answer wouldn’t come for another five years.
#9The Thames Discovery: How a Careless Confession Led to a Breakthrough
In October 2024—just four months before the Old Bailey trial and shortly after his extradition from Switzerland—Louis Ahearne submitted his defense statement. It contained one curious detail.
He claimed that on the way back to Woolwich, their Renault had stopped on John Harrison Way. He insisted CCTV footage would show him "getting some air," while Kelly wandered off toward the Thames.
For Det Supt Matthew Webb, this was a game-changing lead.
"We knew the vehicle had stopped there, and that Kelly got out—but beyond that, we had no clue. We didn’t know where he went or what he did—only that it happened at John Harrison Way," Webb recalled.
Immediately, investigators’ instincts kicked in.
"If someone wants to get rid of something crucial, odds are, it’s a firearm," Webb speculated.
Little did they know, what they were about to uncover would tie everything together.
#10The Thames iPad: A Criminal’s Slip-Up That Solved the Case
Louis Ahearne’s defense statement unintentionally set off a chain reaction that cracked the case wide open. His mention of a stop on John Harrison Way led investigators straight to the River Thames—where they unearthed a crucial piece of evidence: an iPad.
The discovery sent shockwaves through the gang. Kelly, who had no idea about the iPad until right before the trial, was livid. On the second day of proceedings, footage from a prison van captured him yelling at Louis:
"How is the snitch life treating you?"
While Kelly and Stewart remained silent throughout the trial—refusing to testify out of fear for their safety—Louis subtly pointed the finger at Kelly, implying he was the trigger man in the Woodford shooting.
But for Det Supt Matthew Webb, the iPad was the final missing piece.
"Talk about being flabbergasted," Webb recalled. "Det Insp Matthew Freeman called me and said, ‘We've gone to the Thames and found an iPad.’ I can’t repeat what I said, but my jaw hit the floor. What a beautiful piece of the puzzle."
Forensic analysis of the iPad’s call records revealed direct links to Kelly and the Ahearne brothers. But the real jackpot came from the Sim card—it was connected to GPS trackers found in a car when Louis and Kelly were arrested in August 2019.
From there, police followed a digital breadcrumb trail:
🔍 Email accounts traced back to Kelly and a close associate
🛒 59 Amazon & eBay purchases, including burner phones used in the murder plot
📍 A Sim card that vanished from the network just before Allen was shot
In the end, a single careless mistake—disposing of an iPad in the Thames—was enough to bring the entire criminal web crashing down.
#11You Keep Scratching, You Keep Finding: How Detectives Took Down an International Crime Ring
Despite their experience as seasoned international criminals, Louis Ahearne, Stewart Ahearne, and Daniel Kelly were ultimately brought down by a single discarded iPad—and the relentless detectives who refused to overlook any clue.
On Monday, the trio was found guilty of conspiracy to murder. Their sentencing is set for April 25, but for Det Supt Matthew Webb, the case is far from over.
"It’s one of those cases where you keep scratching, and you keep finding," he remarked, hinting at even deeper layers of criminal activity yet to be uncovered.
What started as an investigation into a near-fatal shooting in Woodford soon unraveled a sprawling network of international heists, stolen antiques, and organized crime. And if Webb’s words are any indication—this may just be the tip of the iceberg.
