Three guilty over Wolverhampton playground shooting

Three men have been convicted of attempted murder after two children, including an 11-year-old girl playing on a climbing frame, were shot.

The girl and boy, 15, were hit and injured in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting involving armed gangs near a playground in Wolverhampton.

Kian Durnin, 22, Martinho De-Sousa, 24, and Tireq McIntosh, 23, were convicted at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday.

Prosecutors said the men had been aiming at the occupants of another car.

Jurors deliberated for more than a week after the men, all from Wolverhampton, pleaded not guilty to trying to kill an unknown person.

The court previously heard the children's playground off Shelley Road in Bushbury was "right in the line of fire" during the May Bank Holiday this year.

The girl was playing on a climbing frame at the time while the 15-year-old boy was in the car park area on a bicycle.

Kian Durnin, Tireq McIntosh and Martinho De-Sousa (left to right) are due to be sentenced on 20 December

In a statement read out in court, the girl's mum described how she dashed to the park after her daughter's friend called her to say she had been shot.

She said she saw her child surrounded by people trying to help before she "saw the hole in her leg".

• Wolverhampton shooting: 'This isn't Grand Theft Auto, it's real life'

The three men were in a stolen vehicle and fired at a group of people who had gathered next to the playground, the jury heard, with more bullets discharged in a subsequent car chase through the city.

The trial heard Durnin, De Sousa, and McIntosh were "proper hitters who were intent on a murder battle".

Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Durnin, the driver of the car, and McIntosh, in the front seat, both leaning out of the window and firing shots towards members of a rival group, with De-Sousa in the back seat.

Prosecutors said the intended targets were the occupants of a Mini Cooper which gave chase after the shooting.

Throughout the trial, cell mast data, DNA traces and CCTV footage were all used by prosecutors to help identify the suspects.

The Focus was found abandoned the day after the shooting with a smashed rear window and a bullet lodged in one of the head rests.

Bullet cases were also found in the tray of the passenger door as well as unfired cartridges, while officers found bullet cases on the floor on the driver's side.

The children who were shot have made recoveries from their physical injuries, but the family of the girl said she had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Her granddad said she had been told about the verdicts and was relieved.

Analysis by Phil Mackie, BBC Midlands Correspondent

What's really shocking is just how little regard the people in either car had for each other or anyone else during the shooting.

There had been several incidents in the months and weeks before the attack.

On the day, the Mini Cooper drove through a housing estate, which the defendants regarded as their "territory". That was all the provocation needed for the attack which left two children in hospital with bullet wounds.

As is usual in these cases, there was little chance of a confession and even less that someone would come forward and identify them. It took painstaking detective work to piece together phone calls and thousands of hours of CCTV to identify and then arrest the three men.

The Major Crime Team told me that because of this case and further arrests since, the situation in Wolverhampton has calmed down.

But the guns used in the shooting haven't been recovered and it's likely that the criminal gangs have already recruited the next young men to act as their foot soldiers.

'Cowardly attack'

Det Insp Francis Nock from West Midlands Police described it as a cowardly attack by men who had no hesitation in firing weapons next to a children's playground.

He said it was lucky the two children were not more seriously injured or killed.

"Thankfully, they have both made recoveries from their physical wounds, but this has left their families shattered," Det Insp Nock said.

"We may never know who the intended targets were or why the shooting happened, but we believe it involved tensions between gangs in the Wolverhampton area and may be connected to illegal drugs."

Det Insp Nock added a huge number of officers had worked on the investigation, reviewing more than 2,000 hours of CCTV.

Giovanni D'Alessandro, senior crown prosecutor for CPS West Midlands, said it was a matter of luck "measured in fractions of time and angle" no-one died.

"The reality is that both young victims, one aged just 11 at the time of the attack, are lucky to be alive today," he added,

Extensive planning went into the attack and the three defendants took every chance to avoid being found, Mr D'Alessandro said.

"Their pleas are just a further demonstration that they have repeatedly failed to recognise the severity of their actions," he said.

Durnin, of Milton Road, De-Sousa, of Deansfield Road and Tireq McIntosh, from Valley Road were also found guilty of aggravated vehicle taking and are due to be sentenced next week.