A mother accused of murdering her ex-husband in a doorstep acid attack told him he was ‘insane’ to think she was involved in an ambush because she ‘wouldn’t put their child at risk’, a court heard today.
Danny Cahalane, 38, was ‘in the s***’ with a British drugs lord who was operating out of Dubai and threatened to kill him over unpaid money, prosecutors said.
He was ambushed the month before the acid attack on January 19, 2025, at his home and threatened.
Then on February 21, Mr Cahalane, a drug dealer, was ‘doused in acid’ in his own home in Plymouth, Devon, last year and died from his injuries in hospital 10 weeks later on May 3.
Jurors were told that drugs kingpin Ryan Kennedy, nicknamed ‘Frost’ in the criminal world, orchestrated the hit on Mr Cahalane to show him ‘who was boss’.
Mr Cahalane’s ex-wife Paris Wilson, 35, with whom he shares a child, is on trial accused of murder alongside five other men at Winchester Crown Court, while Mr Kennedy, believed to be in Dubai, has not been charged with any crimes.
His ex-wife Paris Wilson, 35, is accused of lying to her ex-husband and is on trial alongside five other men accused of Mr Cahalane’s murder.
Prosecutor Jo Martin KC told the court today: ‘[Wilson] had of course, as you know, been in contact with Frost in the run up to what happened.
Danny Cahalane’s ex-wife Paris Wilson (pictured), 35, is on trial accused of murder
Danny Cahalane (pictured) was murdered in a doorstep acid attack over his £120,000 debt after he gambled away a drug kingpin’s money, a court heard
‘We know that because she told her mother some days before about setting Danny up at her address, but immediately after the events, the prosecution say, she lied about her involvement in what happened that morning – not just to Danny but also to her mother.
‘She sent Danny a series of messages asking him how those two black guys had known her address, telling Danny not to bring his ‘s***’ to her house and asking what was going on.
‘She told Danny that if he thinks she has anything to do with it, then he is insane as she is [the child]’s carer and wouldn’t put [her] at risk.
‘She said to Danny that she was going to go to the police.
‘She sent similar messages of innocence telling her mother ‘there was some black guys here who tried to grab Dan’,’ Ms Martin said.
She continued: ‘She felt the need as well to tell her mother “it genuinely wasn’t me…but now I’m scared people know my address”.
‘The prosecution say that Paris Wilson was clearly lying when she expressed her innocence to her mother and Danny because it was her who gave Frost her address.’
The court heard that on the day of the acid attack in February, police contacted Wilson to collect the child she shared with Danny ‘in the early hours of the morning’.
Mr Cahalane, pictured with ex-wife Wilson, was ‘doused in acid’ in his own home in Plymouth
Following the acid attack, police spoke to Wilson, who said she knew very little about what happened in the January 19 incident.
She eventually told police that ‘she had told Frost her address, and told Frost when Danny Cahalane would be there’.
Ms Martin said: ‘She said that the reason she lied to the police in her interview was because she didn’t want social services to know – in her words “I didn’t want Social Services to think that I knew anything about crime, full stop. Let alone about this kind of level of organised crime that this was”.
‘What Paris Wilson maintained in her interviews however was that although she had been in contact with Frost, and clearly knew what Frost was like, she didn’t realise who would turn up, nor what they might try to do to Danny.
‘She maintained she didn’t want Danny to be hurt.’
The other men accused of murder are Abdulrasheed Adedoja, 23, Ramarnee Bakas-Sithole, 23, Israel Augustus, 26, Isanah Sungum, 22, and Brian Kalemba, 23.
The defendants have all pleaded not guilty.
Mr Cahalane was described as ‘a sort of middle management in the drugs supply chain’.
Jenna Said, 39, (pictured at Winchester Crown Court) is one of 11 people on trial over Cahalane’s death
He owed Kennedy [Frost] money after gambling with profits he made from drug dealing.
It was also heard that someone below him in the chain had fled to New Zealand without giving him some of the money he was owed.
Speaking about messages exchanged between Kennedy and Mr Cahalane, Ms Martin said: ‘What does become clear from the messages is that Danny owed Kennedy in the region of £120,000, and what is absolutely clear from the messages is that Frost was not happy about that.’
Following the acid attack, Mr Calahane told police that this left him ‘in the s***’ with Kennedy.
The court heard that Mr Cahalane was threatened in the months before the acid attack.
On January 19, 2025, men who ‘tried to rip his door open as he tried to shut it’ on Kennedy’s orders had tried to intimidate him, Ms Martin said.
Kingpin Kennedy then messaged him that day ‘Close call? Mate I’m telling you they gonna burn gaffes down and you’re gonna die.’
Adedoja, Bakas-Sithole, Augustus, Wilson, Sungum, Kalemba, Jean Mukuna, 23, Arrone Mukuna, 25, and Jenna Said, 39, have all denied participating in the criminal activities of an organised crime group.
Adedoja, Bakas-Sithole, Wilson, Jean Mukuna and Arrone Mukuna have pleaded not guilty to the attempted kidnap and attempted grievous bodily harm with intent of Mr Cahalane.
The trial continues.