REECE James was shot dead at point-blank range in his Boscombe flat, a court heard today.

The 21-year-old, known as Styles, died “virtually instantaneously” when he was shot in the cheek by a sawn-off shotgun in the flat in Sea Road/Roumelia Lane in the early hours of July 25 last year.

Prosecutor Timothy Mousley QC told Winchester Crown Court that defendants Wayne Stephenson, 34, Keifer Hutchinson, 23, Jarome Parkinson, 25, drove down from London looking for Mr James and his friends.

He said co-defendants Kieron Wellington, 30, and Miss Terri Campbell, 23, both from Durley Gardens, Bournemouth, directed the trio to the flat.

Opening the prosecution case Mr Mousley QC said police were called to the flat at 2.29am and discovered Mr James dead slumped against the wall in the lounge.

A post mortem examination revealed that the pellet went into Mr James' cheek and travelled upwards through his upper jaw, base of his skull and brain.

Mr Mousley QC told the court that police identified a silver Audi A3 car on CCTV in the Boscombe area and discovered it had been insured and registered to Stephenson.

He said the car had been spotted on CCTV and ANPR cameras leaving Vauxhall Bridge in London at 11.52pm on July 24 last year.

It was clocked on the A338 Spur Road between Ringwood and Bournemouth at 1.24am on July 25.

The jury were shown CCTV footage of Parkinson, Stephenson and Hutchinson arriving in the Audi and walking towards the entrance to the flat, located in Roumelia Lane.

Mr Mousley QC said footage showed the trio, with their hoods up, going inside at 2.17am. Two minutes later they are seen running out of the flat at “speed”, he added.

Mr Mousley QC said evidence was found on the defendants' mobile phones which showed calls between Stephenson, Parkinson and Hutchinson in the car and Wellington and Campbell in Bournemouth. It also found that phones belonging to Stephenson, Parkinson and Hutchinson were in the Boscombe area between 1.30am and 2am on that day.

Mr Mousley QC said cocaine and drug paraphernalia was found at the flat in Sea Road.

He told the court that “jealously and infidelity” may be one reason for the killing in connection with pictures found on a mobile phone at Campbell and Wellington's flat. One showed Campbell arm in arm with David Aston - one of Mr James' friends - when Wellington was on holiday in May last year.

Wellington and Campbell had been in a relationship since around April that year.

Stephenson, of Byron Court, Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, London; Hutchinson, of Manaton Close, Peckham, London; Parkinson, of St Mary's Terrace, Dover Road, Folkstone in Kent; Wellington and Campbell, of Westcliff Studios, Durley Gardens, Bournemouth, deny murder.

The trial continues.