Michael Shaw and Chris Hewertson secure convictions of drill rap gang members in shooting case
Michael Shaw and Chris Hewertson secured convictions of three core members of a violent criminal gang, known as K Block in a 12 week trial at Luton Crown Court before HHJ Lithman QC.
This case was the third in a series of Bedford gang trials successfully prosecuted by the pair and focussed on gang warfare in June 2017 by way of a series of stabbings and the shooting of a rival gang’s associate. The victim of the shooting suffered 15 shotgun pellets embedded in the back of his head and neck and a host of other shot in his back and shoulders. His brother-in-law was also shot in his action to haul the primary victim back into a house. Miraculously, neither man was killed.
The evidence in the trial established that many K Block members were rooted in the supply of controlled drugs. The gang produce violent and explicit drill rap videos in which the common themes were “trapping” over “County Lines,” shankings and drive-by shootings. The above-shooting was carried out by sourcing a “burner” car which was crashed by the K Block operatives into stationary vehicles at the time of the shots.
The conspiracy giving rise to the shooting was a targeted plan of reprisal by the K Block in response to one of their younger associates, a 16 year old, having his arm hacked almost clean through by a pair of men wielding a machete. Those suspected of this grave assault and a further multiple stabbing as part of the rival gang face a trial to follow at St Albans Crown Court in the weeks before Christmas.
