LIAM SMITH SHOOTING: A friend turned killer

Aug 25 2007 by Sarah Chapman, Liverpool Daily Post

The lawless lives of feuding youths led to a fatal shooting outside a Liverpool prison. Sarah Chapman reports

A FRIEND of a teenager shot in the head outside a Liverpool prison has been convicted of killing him in a feud between rival gangs.

Liam Smith, 19, who was known as Smigger and was a prominent member of the Norris Green-based Strand gang, died after the close-range shooting on August 23, last year.

Yesterday, Liam Duffy, 26, who was described as Smith’s friend, was convicted of his manslaughter by a Liverpool Crown Court jury.

It comes after gang members Ryan Lloyd, 19, Thomas Forshaw, 18, and a 16-year-old boy were all convicted of Mr Smith’s murder on Thursday.

Duffy, of Polperro Close, Croxteth, was yesterday cleared of murder.

He had denied any involvement with Mr Smith’s death as he claimed he was his friend and used to socialise with him.

But he also had close connections with the rival Croxteth Crew, who used guns to settle their differences.

During their 10-week trial, estimated to have cost £5m, the court heard intense, often violent rivalry had existed between the Croxteth Crew and the Strand Gang since 2004, and there were at least 17 occasions when members fired guns at each other.

Youths wandered round the housing estates dressed in body armour and guns were shot at houses and shops.

Mr Smith, who lived in Cottesbrook Road, Norris Green, had also been the victim of a shooting in March 2005 and pellets from that attack were found in his body when it was examined after his death.

Neil Flewitt QC, prosecuting, told the jury: “The murder of Liam Smith was yet another, and on this occasion fatal, example of the mindless and indiscriminate violence that was a feature of the rivalry between the Croxteth Crew and the Strand Gang.”

The bitter dispute resulted in killing on August 23 last year after Mr Smith visited a friend in Altcourse prison.

Words were exchanged between his group and inmate Lloyd, who was being visited by his sisters.

Lloyd stormed off from the visiting hall and returned to the wing to make a series of furious phone calls to his gang.

Within an hour, Mr Smith had been shot in the head by a sawn-off shotgun fired from about five yards away from him.

Mr Flewitt said Lloyd picked up a contraband mobile phone and was allegedly heard to say: “‘Quick, quick, give us the phone, I’ll get the boys up here to pop them.”

The call to arms was responded to quickly as a convoy of vehicles made its way to the scene and the gunman approached Mr Smith.

The Croxteth Crew’s victim died in hospital a few hours after the cold-blooded shooting.

His killers, Lloyd, of Silverwell Road, Croxteth; Forshaw, of Middle Way, Croxteth; the youth who cannot be named for legal reasons, and Duffy will all be sentenced on September 27.