'Cut the head off' – bizarre plot to kill Joss Stone heard by court

TWO MEN who were arrested near the singer Joss Stone's Devon home equipped with a samurai sword, body bags and gaffer tape had plotted to decapitate the soul singer and dump her body in a river, a jury has been told.

Kevin Liverpool, 35, and Junior Bradshaw, 32, who were spotted looking "agitated and behaving abnormally" in June 2011 by the singer's neighbours, had driven from their home in Longsight, Manchester, said The Guardian.

Police found notes in their flat reading "Cut the heads off", "Once Jocelyn's dead … find a river to dump her" and "Joscelyn (sic) Stoker [Stone's real surname]… RIP for ever", said Simon Morgan, prosecuting.

Another note read: "The Queen she devil her system takes the piss but she likes Joss Stone. Invited to Wills wedding by the Queen. Where's the sense in that. The Queen just don't give a f***."

Morgan said the two men were part of a group who may have plotted to kill Stone for financial reasons or because of her links to the royal family but added that their motive may never be clearly established. The other members of the group have not been found.

In June 2011, the men's red Fiat Punto was picked up travelling on the M6 in Cheshire at 2.35am by an automatic numberplate recognition system. Two hours later they filled up with petrol in Gloucestershire and tried to drive off without paying, the court was told.

After they left the service station, however, they crashed into metal railings and a digger. Police attended, but believing the Fiat could not be moved, they left the scene and did not search it.

The two men managed to get the car moving again and drove to Devon, Morgan went on. They got lost and stopped a postman, showing him a picture of the singer and asking him where she lived. He said he did not know.

Morgan told the court: "The items in their possession [and] the fact that the intended victim was at home ... point to a determined effort on the part of the defendants to carry out the plan they had hatched some time before." ·