Gang member with gun gets five years

Feb 23 2008 by Chloe Griffiths, Liverpool Daily Post

A TEENAGE member of a notorious Liverpool gang has been jailed for five years for possessing a gun.

When police searched the house of Norris Green Strand gang member Shaun Dooley, they found a semi-automatic hand gun wrapped in tissue and hidden in a shoe box above his wardrobe.

Dooley’s step-father and sister were originally arrested, but when officers took the 18-year-old in for questioning days later, on September 5, 2007, he said: “I know it’s something to do with a gun.”

The discovery of the weapon came just months after Dooley was among six members of the gang given tough anti-social behaviour orders in a bid to curb their activities.

The orders, imposed by Liverpool magistrates in June, included strict restrictions on who he could associate with, what roads he could go on and even what clothes he could wear.

Police have blamed the Strand Gang for making certain parts of Norris Green a “no-go” area and said they would target each member one-by-one.

But yesterday Michael Bagley, defending, told Liverpool Crown Court Dooley – who was diagnosed with hyperactive disorder ADHD as a child – had only been the “minder” of the weapon.

He told the court the teenager had been under extreme pressure to hide the gun after his home on Branstree Avenue, Norris Green, was fired at.

Dooley’s finger prints were found on the shoe box and tissue paper, but not on the weapon itself.

Mr Bagley said: “The case here is that there is evidence that in fact threats were made to this particular defendant by others, and it went further than that, his house was shot at.

“His mother confirms his house was shot at. She said if it hadn’t been for a television she may have been shot herself as it blocked a bullet.

“There is a clear case of pressure here.”

He added that Dooley was a “victim of the gun culture, rather than a proponent of it”.

But Judge William George ruled that Dooley’s circumstances were not exceptional enough to reduce the sentence imposed by Government and he sentenced the youth to five years in a Young Offenders’ Institute.

He added: “I have a duty to protect the public.”