Fitness instructor father-of-two ‘was killed in doorstep acid attack over £120,000 debt after gambling away drug kingpin’s money’: His ex-girlfriend and five men appear in court accused of murder

A fitness instructor father-of-two was murdered in a doorstep acid attack over £120,000 debt after he gambled away a drug kingpin’s money, a court has heard.  

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.  

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.

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, who he shares a child with, is on trial accused of murder. She appeared alongside five men on murder charges at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday.

Mr Kennedy is not on trial and has not been charged with any crimes as he is ‘almost certainly’ in Dubai. 

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.

Prosecutor Jo Martin told the court that Mr Cahalane was killed by people acting on behalf of a ‘drug dealer who wanted to enforce his debt and show Danny Cahalane who was boss’.

Ms Martin said: ‘In the early hours of the morning of the February 21, 2025, two men broke into a house in Plymouth, the home address of the victim Danny Cahalane.

‘By the time the two men had driven off, Danny Cahalane had been the victim of an acid attack – sulphuric acid had been thrown on him; burning into his whole body.

‘Despite being treated in hospital for the next 10 weeks or so, Danny Cahalane died on the 3rd May 2025 as a result of the horrific injuries he had received that night.

‘There can be no doubt, the prosecution said, that Danny Cahalane was murdered.

‘Whoever threw acid over him, must have intended to, at the very least, cause him really serious bodily harm.’

Mr Cahalane was described as ‘a sort of middle management in the drugs supply chain’.

He owed Kennedy 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, Danny told police that this left him ‘in the s***’ with Kennedy.

Ms Martin said: ‘Danny told the police he was in significant debt to Kennedy.

‘Danny said he tried to organise some sort of “repayment plan” but it just didn’t work.

‘Instead he did a great deal of stalling and lying.’

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 your 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.