Jury sees CCTV of Thusha Kamaleswaran shooting attack

The bullet damaged Thusha Kamaleswaran vertebrae

A jury has been shown CCTV footage of an attack in which a five-year-old girl was hit by gunfire in an alleged gang-related shooting.

Thusha Kamaleswaran was shot as she played at her uncle's shop in Stockwell, south London, in March 2011. She survived but was left paralysed.

Roshan Selvakumar, 35, was also hit and still has bullet fragments in his head.

Kazeem Kolawole, 19, Anthony McCalla, 19, and Nathaniel Grant, 21, deny grievous bodily harm with intent.

Prosecutor Edward Brown QC warned the jury that they might find the CCTV footage from inside Stockwell Food and Wine disturbing.

The jury was also shown a photograph of the cardigan that Thusha was wearing that day, bloodstained and with bullet damage.

She was hit by the second shot that was fired, the court heard. Mr Selvakumar was hit by the first shot, fired seven seconds earlier.

Mr Brown told the court: "He remembers trying to shut the door on the gunman and then felt a blow to his face, and a crunching sensation inside his head.

"He didn't know he had been hit by a bullet. He thought perhaps it was a bottle."

Cardiac arrest

The scene inside the shop was "frantic", with Mr Selvakumar's blood dripping on the floor as he retreated and Thusha being picked up and taken to the back, Mr Brown said.

Her heart stopped in the shop and surgery had to be performed at the scene to save her. She went into cardiac arrest again in hospital, and once more emergency surgery saved her life.

The bullet had passed through her chest and through the seventh vertebra of her spine, leaving her permanently in a wheelchair.

Mr Grant, of Camberwell New Road, Camberwell, Mr Kolawole, of Black Prince Road, Lambeth, and Mr McCalla, of Oakdale Road, Streatham, are accused of acting together in staging the attack.

They also face charges of the attempted murder of another man, Roshaun Bryan, whom the prosecution say was the intended victim that day, and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Mr Bryan had run into the shop in a bid to escape the trio, the court heard.

The trial continues.