Murder witness appeal 14 years after Marvin Couson is shot outside Lime Bar in Shoreditch

The heartbroken family of a man who died in a vegetative state 13 years after being shot outside a bar in London’s East End have spoken of their pain in a fresh police appeal for witnesses.

Marvin Couson was gunned down in Shoreditch in 2002 outside what was then the Lime Bar in Curtain Road—but it was another 13 years before the father-of-two finally succumbed to his wounds.

Detectives investigating Marvin’s murder have launched a fresh witness appeal this week on what should have been his 41st birthday.

He was rushed to the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel after the shooting, before being transferred to a specialist neuro-disability hospital, unable to communicate or do anything for himself, where he died last year on August 8.

“Another birthday for Marvin, but not being with us,” his distraught mum Emily said.

“We remember how he was always wanting to celebrate his birthdays with others. It’s difficult to accept he’s no longer here.

“The pain of reliving the years, months and days at Marvin’s hospital bedside watching him suffer in pain from hypoxic brain injury never goes away from us.”

A £40,000 reward remains for anyone with information leading to arrest and prosecution of those responsible for Marvin’s death.

Police arriving in Curtain Road at 3.40am on Saturday, May 12, 2002, found 26-year-old Marvin on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Guns had been fired inside the Lime Bar nightspot—replaced by today’s Queen of Hoxton venue. It was packed with 600 partygoers who fled into the street, where Marvin collapsed after being hit.

Det Chief Insp Noel McHugh said: “We followed every call we received—even the criminal fraternity are angered by what happened to Marvin, who was not involved in gangs or crime.”

But the detective chief from Scotland Yard’s Homicide Command is up against a wall of silence.

“We hear there’s a ‘code’ that you don’t speak out,” he added. “But they should look at the pictures of Marvin suffering and consider the years of distress his mother has endured. They could hold the key to unlocking this investigation.

“Time has passed and loyalties change—I hope for the sake of Marvin’s family and his two children who are now teenagers that someone can do the right thing.

“Marvin’s family visited him every single day in hospital for 13 years before his death.”

Marvin, a security systems fitter from south London, was rushed to the Royal London after the shooting with injuries to his heart and other organs. Surgeons operated before he was transferred to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability in Putney—where he languished for 13 years until he finally died last year. A post-mortem examination gave the cause as brain injury from the 2002 shooting.

His sister Margaret said: “No explanation will ever be acceptable for us as a family that whoever killed him continues to live their life free. We won’t stop our plea for justice.”

Detectives want to trace men in a T-reg red or burgundy Ford Fiesta seen speeding in Curtain Road the night the shots were fired on May 12, 2002, and are appealing for anyone with information to contact the incident room on 020-8785 8099, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555111.