Pensioner ordered hitman to kill his financial adviser 'to clear his head', court hears

Defendant says he believed mob website was a 'scam'

The 64-year-old is on trial at Winchester Crown Court (Ben Mitchell/PA Wire)

A retired GP has told a court he only ordered a hitman to murder his financial adviser on the dark web to “clear his head” and never intended for him to be killed.

Dr David Crichton, from Bournemouth in Dorset, is accused of accessing the website of the “Chechen mob” and selecting an order to “kill the bastard” for $5,000 (£3,800) in bitcoin.

The 64-year-old, who is on trial at Winchester Crown Court, allegedly solicited the murder of Andrew Bolden, a pension and wealth investment adviser of private bank Brown Shipley.

He is also accused of three charges of sending a malicious communication after allegedly sending Mr Bolden two text messages and telephoning him once indicating he may kill himself.

Dr Crichton, who is now a church warden and keen triathlon athlete, denies the charges.

The defendant told the court that he had “lost or misappropriated about £1m” of his pension fund partly as a result of receiving advice from Mr Bolden, who has been cleared of giving wrong guidance.

Dr Crichton said he had been diagnosed with “treatment-resistant depression” following the loss that led him to suffer suicidal thoughts.

He said he felt the only way of resolving the issue was to speak to Mr Bolden and said this was the reason he sent the messages saying Mr Bolden “was the only person who can help save my life”.

Dr Crichton said he went on to the site on the dark web to examine a theory of helping to treat suicidal thoughts for himself and for others.

He said that he had found out about the website over a link to crowdfund a contract killing of Donald Trump that he believed to be fake. He said he wanted to research the idea of whether “throwing away an idea” can help someone feel better and he entered Mr Bolden’s details into the order form as a way of “clearing his head”.

Crichton said: “I am a research doctor, I felt this may be some useful research for the treatment of suicide. I did think my mood improved afterwards.

“I knew Mr Bolden was completely safe, I knew there was no threat to him at all, first of all I thought the website was an obvious scam and I hadn’t paid any money.”

The defendant added that he was “very wealthy” and he would have had no difficulties in finding the $5,000 price of the contract killing had he been serious about order.

Mr Crichton said he had suffered a stroke and a pulmonary embolism as a result of medication for his depression and had suffered head injuries in a cycling accident in January 2017 that affected his thinking. He also had a more serious crash in January 2018.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by Press Association