A woman helped her gunman boyfriend to "lie low" within minutes of him fatally shooting an ex-fellow prison inmate dead at a chalet complex, a jury has heard.

Daisy Donohoe is alleged to have booked hotel accommodation and provided food and clothing for convicted criminal Jonathan Lawlor after he had killed Sam Petrou at the Cliff Cottage Chalet Park on the Isle of Sheppey on June 10 last year.

Following her arrest, police found searches on her phone on how to obtain Irish passports as well as flights to Vietnam.

The investigation also revealed that Lawlor had previously fired an airgun at 35-year-old Mr Petrou, who he had met while in jail, and even been arrested on suspicion of shooting Donohoe.

Mr Petrou, who was single and from Gillingham, was in a friend's chalet at the Eastchurch site when he was shot twice with a converted blank-firing self-loading pistol.

One bullet severed his aorta artery and lodged against his backbone while the other passed through his body and ricocheted off a kitchen unit and into the shower room.

He was found dead, slumped on the floor and against a cupboard, by his friend the following morning.

Lawlor, who was wanted on prison licence recall at the time and effectively "on the run", was arrested five days later in Newcastle.

The 42-year-old, of no fixed address, was subsequently charged in relation to the shooting and remanded into custody at HMP Elmley.

Donohoe, 36, of Burnell Avenue, Welling, south east London, was also arrested and charged but released on bail.

However, jurors heard that while awaiting their court proceedings Lawlor died in prison in October, leaving Donohoe to face trial alone accused of perverting the course of justice.

At the start of the case yesterday (March 11) and addressing the court on the subject of motive, prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC said that not only had Lawlor and Mr Petrou been in prison together, but that both men had also been involved in an "intimate situation" with Donohoe.

In addition, Mr Petrou had at one time been in debt to Lawlor and, in December 2022, been shot by him with an airgun.

On that occasion, he was left bruised but Mr Petrou told his family Lawlor had warned him he was "lucky" and that "next time it would be real."

It is alleged however that having given Lawlor "a wide berth" following that incident, he was killed within hours of what police believe to be a chance meeting between the pair at the local pub, The Coppice.

Ms Lumsdon told the jury: "It is the Crown's case that Jonathan Lawlor shot Mr Petrou, and it is our case that Daisy Donohoe helped him to evade the attention of police by helping him to lie low - booking accommodation in the hotel, providing him with food, and giving him somewhere to stay.

"It is our case he must have told her what had happened....and, knowing that he had committed a serious crime, she made those arrangements to stop police finding him."

The court heard that neighbours of the chalet where Mr Petrou was found dead later told police that they had heard "bangs, pops and fireworks" at around 8.30pm.

It was also reported that a man dressed in a grey Adidas tracksuit and carrying a black rucksack had been seen to approach the chalet, walk up the steps and, having opened the door, lift his left arm and put it through the doorway.

Ms Lumsdon said he then ran away, crouching as he did so.

That man, later identified as Lawlor, was seen fleeing to a white Jeep registered to Donohoe. She was sitting in the front passenger seat as he drove them away from the chalet park.

The court heard enquiries revealed the couple had booked into The Shurland Hotel in Eastchurch High Street before the shooting, and then the Holiday Inn Express in Sittingbourne.

They arrived just 20 minutes after Mr Petrou had been shot, with Lawlor still dressed in the tracksuit.

Ms Lumsdon said information from Donohoe's bank cards showed that she then made a number of purchases from the hotel and a nearby petrol station, including takeaways and bottles of wine.

She also left the Holiday Inn at one point during their stay, returning with shopping bags. Financial records showed she had made purchases from Sports Direct and Empire Retail, the jury heard.

Donohoe eventually made her way home, having paid for Lawlor to stay two more nights.

However, the court was told he left a day early, being driven away by an unknown person in a van to London before he travelled north by train to Newcastle where he was arrested on June 15.

After his arrest police found a text message on his phone to another woman on the night of the shooting saying "Just done job."

The gun itself was never recovered but DNA on the bullet casings found at the scene matched Lawlor's.

Neither Lawlor nor Donohoe answered police questions following their arrests, but the jury heard she has since told her defence team that she did not know her lover had shot anyone.

The court was told she had also been the one who picked him up from prison on his release in 2022 and he later informed his probation officer that he had moved into her home.

Just a month before Mr Petrou was gunned down, Donohoe went to hospital with a bullet wound to her bottom, saying she had been shot in error at a party, said the prosecutor.

Lawlor was arrested but Donohoe did not co-operate with police and the investigation was halted.

However, this led to him being wanted on recall, Ms Lumsdon explained.

"The suspicion that he was responsible was enough for the prison to revoke his licence. At the time of the shooting (of Mr Petrou) he was, as we say, at large."

Donohoe later told social workers she had been shot by an unknown intruder while in bed with her boyfriend.

Of the online searches for passports and flights found on her phone post-arrest, Ms Lumsdon told the court Donohoe had also looked into whether social workers would trace her if she left the country.

"The prosecution say she she decided it was time to lie low," she added.

Donohoe denies perverting the course of justice between June 9 and June 12 last year and her trial continues.