DRUG dealers traded insults over Facebook Messenger during a Worcester ‘turf war’ before a crossbow was fired at a rival’s house.

Messages between Kane Ingram and Luke Bridger were read out at Worcester Crown Court yesterday. Ingram, 21, of Saddlers Walk, Worcester, and Asgar Khalfe, 25, previously of Townley Gardens, Aston, Birmingham admit conspiring to supply heroin and crack cocaine in Worcester but deny conspiracy to cause actual bodily harm to Mr Bridger.

Mr Bridger’s Carlisle Road home was attacked with a crossbow by Scott Fewtrell while Tommy Lee Jauncey shot a blank firing pistol on August 30, 2017. Mr Bridger wrote to Ingram: “Listen, how are we going to get rid of your boss (Khalfe)?” Mr Bridger claims a man called ‘Z’ is coming out of prison, adding: “Me and him doing big weight.” He tells Ingram that they can do better than ‘Oz’ (Khalfe) and talks about taking over in Worcester, Malvern, Evesham and Hereford but says ‘Oz needs robbing first’.

Ingram did not attend a meeting with Mr Bridger in Cripplegate Park. Mr Bridger was ‘not happy’ about being stood up, warning Ingram that when Z gets out ‘you’re all (the dealers) coming off road’. Ingram asks Mr Bridger: “Are you mad?” Mr Bridger calls Ingram a ‘nerd’, threatens to attack him and warns him: “If you go to jail people are going to smoke you."

Mr Bridger made an offensive comment about the promiscuity of Ingram’s mother and sister. Ingram says Mr Bridger is ‘a nerd’ and tells him: “You need your boys to be a big man.” Ingram also described Mr Bridger as homosexual. The trial continues.