A businessman was shot dead in a botched burglary over his extensive jewellry collection which he had been collecting for 25 years, a court heard.
Guy Hedger was shot in front of his devastated husband Simon-Pierre Hedger-Cooper at their £1million mansion near Ringwood, Hampshire, on April 30.
Simon-Pierre Hedger-Cooper said he and his late husband were ordered by masked men – who were clutching a shotgun and Champagne bottles – to lay down on the floor.
After Mr Hedger got up to open the safe his husband pressed a panic alarm and the burglars shot, leaving Mr Hedger fatally injured.
He told police: ‘I heard an almighty boom – Guy said “I have been hit, I have been hit”.
Simon-Pierre Hedger-Cooper said masked men clutching Champagne bottles as weapons and a shotgun raided the £1million mansion he shared with Guy Hedger near Ringwood, Hampshire on April 30 and shot his husband when he hit a panic alarm
Mr Hedger’s jewellry collection, some of which were stolen, included sovereign rings worth £26,000, a 40 carat gold ring, a wedding ring with three 6 carat diamonds and a high-end watches.
The watches included a Cartier 10 carat watch, a Cartier Pasha worth thousands, a gold steel Hermes, a Hermes Kelly and two Pandora watches with gold and silver diamonds.
He also has Pandora bracelets, diamond bracelets, a Chanel necklace, a Tiffany’s necklace and other expensive chains, cuff links and pendants.
Mr Hedger-Cooper said: ‘I’ve been collecting for 25 years, I like to dress up.
Scott Keeping, Jason Baccus and Kevin Downton, pictured in a court sketch from an earlier hearing
‘The only people who know about the dressing room and safes are the people that fitted the wardrobe plus friends and family.
‘The safes are hidden away – they are not obvious.’
He added: ‘We don’t have any enemies in the world that want to hurt us.’
In a video interview shown to Winchester Crown Court he broke down as he recalled the moment police informed him that his husband had died.
Mr Hedger-Cooper said he then called 999 for police and ambulance and returned to his husband before putting on some clothes to alert some neighbours.
He said: ‘I then ran upstairs to see Guy and said ‘How are you?’, he said ‘I am going to be ok, I am feeling cold,’ so I put the dog throw over him and got one of our pillows and put it under him.’
Mr Hedger-Cooper said that after they had gone police and paramedics arrived he was taken to a neighbour’s house where he was informed of his husband’s death.
Sobbing, he said: ‘And then they said that Guy had not made it.’
Mr Hedger-Cooper said he had gone to bed at about 1am after watching the movie X-Men: Apocalypse. Mr Hedger had gone to bed earlier.
He said his husband, 61, got up at about 3am and as he returned to the bedroom with their dog, Louis.
But he was followed by two men wearing dark clothing and balaclavas, one armed with a sawn-off shotgun and the other holding bottles of Champagne upside down.
Mr Hedger-Cooper, 48, said: ‘Guy came back into the room, Louis came first, then a few seconds later this guy came in with a gun and another guy game in holding two bottles of Champagne.
‘He told us to lie down on the floor facing the wall. I could feel Louis shaking, Guy was touching my little finger with his little finger in order to reassure me.
‘I could then hear drawers and boxes being opened, ransacking, going through different things, this went on for two, three to four minutes.’
He said one of the raiders, who had been ransacking their belongings, including a Louis Vuitton bag, then said ‘Where’s the f****** safe?’
Scott Keeping, said to have been the getaway driver for the raid, is on trial for murder. His wife Helen Keeping faces charges of assisting an offender
Jason Baccus, who is accused of taking part in the raid, allegedly said he’d ‘burgled a couple of f****ts’ when talking after the break-in
Guy Hedger (right) was shot by burglars in front of his husband Simon-Pierre Hedger-Cooper (pictured, left, on the day of their civil partnership)
He continued: ‘Guy said ‘Ok, ok,’ he started saying ’19’ then froze. I picked up my glasses and got up.
‘There’s a panic button and stupidly I thought it was best to press the panic button. At this time I didn’t really know what was happening, I didn’t know if it was a real gun, I don’t know anything about guns.
‘But at the same time, they do these things and shoot you anyway, I didn’t know what to do.’
He added: ‘All the alarms outside went on and flashing, alarms going off. As it happened I heard an almighty boom, shot, and Guy said ‘I have been hit, I have been hit’.
‘The guy ran out the door and the guy who had been in the dressing room got to the door and said ‘I have forgotten bag’ and began stuffing it.’
Mr Hedger was shot dead at the couple’s £1million home on the edge of the New Forest (pictured)
Police at the scene of the shooting the day after Mr Hedger was shot and died from his wounds
Jason Baccus, 42, and Scott Keeping, 44, both of Verney Close, Bournemouth, along with Kevin Downton, 40, of Winterborne Stickland, near Blandford, all deny murder.
Helen Keeping, 40, from Poole, denies two charges of assisting an offender relating to Baccus by allegedly disposing of stolen property and fellow defendant Keeping by allegedly providing him with a false alibi and disposing of stolen property.
The three male defendants also pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated burglary and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear or violence.
Baccus and Downton admit one charge of burglary of industrial premises in Verwood on the same day as the Castlewood incident, but deny another offence of burglary in the same area.
The trial continues.
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