Mark Duggan 'in contact with gun handler' before shooting

Mark Duggan is alleged to have been in contact with the defendant four times shortly before shooting

Mark Duggan was in contact with a man accused of supplying him with a gun minutes before police shot him dead, a court heard.

The 29-year-old exchanged mobile phone calls and text messages with Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, 30, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

The communications show that Mr Duggan collected a handgun from the defendant, the prosecution says.

Mr Hutchinson-Foster denies giving Mr Duggan an illegal handgun.

The communications data was obtained from cell site analysis from mobile phone masts.

Det Con Thomas Jenkins, from Operation Trident which investigates gun crime in London, told the court that a mobile phone found in Mr Duggan's jacket at the scene contained a number listed as "Kev" in the address book.

Analysis of calls and text messages in his phone and a sim card later found at Mr Hutchinson-Foster's home showed that four phone calls were exchanged between the two men between 16:57 and 17:56 BST on 4 August, 2011, the evening that Mr Duggan died.

The court also heard that a text message was sent from Mr Duggan's Blackberry phone less than 15 minutes before he was shot dead which read: "Watch out for a green VW van. It's Trident.

"They just jammed me."

'Cardboard shoebox'

The court heard Mr Duggan made a fifth call to a minicab office.

Gary Arkless, of the Metropolitan Police's Digital Electronic Forensic Service, said analysis of the phone showed that the minicab in which Mr Duggan was travelling in stopped at a house in Leyton.

Kevin Hutchinson-Foster denies providing Mr Duggan with a gun

Mr Hutchinson-Foster is alleged to have given Mr Duggan a gun in a cardboard shoebox there.

The minicab then continued to Ferry Lane, Tottenham, where Mr Duggan was intercepted and shot dead by police, the court heard.

Jurors were told that in an interview with police, Mr Hutchinson-Foster said he lost the mobile phone he is alleged to have used to communicate with Mr Duggan on the day in question.

But the court heard that the sim card was later found by police at his home.

The court has already heard that Mr Duggan's fingerprints were found on the box. A gun he is alleged to have pulled from his waistband was found 10ft (3m) from where he was shot.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, a police surveillance officer, identified only as ZZ37, said he had been instructed to travel to Burchall Road in Leyton, where Mr Duggan is alleged to have collected a gun from Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, 15 minutes before he was shot by police.

The officer said his vehicle was one of a number of unmarked police vehicles, including the green Volkswagen van mentioned in the text message, which then followed the minicab in which Mr Duggan was travelling until it was intercepted by armed police officers in Ferry Lane, Tottenham, where Mr Duggan was killed.

The trial continues.