Two men have been following a 'revenge' shooting attack on a family home amid a feud between rival groups.
CCTV showed Levi Cull, 28, open fire with a long-barrelled gun through the open door of a home in Bolton in March last year, blasting pellets into the feet of a man inside the home, prosecutor Rachel Cooper told Manchester's .
Cull fired the gun from a car and hit the man at the house where there were also children present and he has been jailed along with accomplice Jenson McNally, 23, for the attack which was part of a feud with another group which is now said to have ended, the court heard.
David Toal, defending Cull, said the bust-up had been resolved following 'contact between both factions' and he insisted there was 'no longer any ill-feeling' between the rival groups. His client had been working as a 'mentor' to other inmates while awaiting sentence, said the barrister.
Father-of-two McNally, said by probation workers to have entrenched 'pro-criminal attitudes', had only a 'limited' history of violence and was working to encourage more 'pro-social attitudes', according to his barrister Richard Vardon, who said the shotgun injuries inflicted were 'not particularly serious'. He said his client had been 'as much sinned against as sinning'.
READ MORE:
Judge Bernadette Baxter said the defendants had been 'in conflict' with, and had been searching for, a man on March 21 last year 'for reasons that are unclear'.
At 9am that day, Cull threatened to go to the home of the man's sister to shoot her and her children. When the threat was reported to police, Cull messaged the sister via , calling her a 'grass'. The woman told Cull to go to 'the big man', referring to her brother.
At 2.30pm that day, there was another encounter which left a black Ford Focus - in which the two defendants had been in - damaged. Their DNA was found inside the vehicle. The pair, and a third occupant of the car, were said to have been involved in a fight with others, reported the
By 9.30pm a Mitsubishi Shogun, with Cull and McNally inside, pulled into Mercia Street in Deane, Bolton. Cull opened fire from the front passenger seat through an opened door of a family home with three children inside, the court was told. A 999 call was made which captured the sound of the gunfire.
Inside the doorway of the home, the brother of the man the pair had been looking for was shot in his feet, ending up with 15 pellets in his right and five in his left, Judge Baxter said. The victim of the shooting is now said to be 'recovering'.
"That must have been a truly terrifying experience for all those who were present including small children who you knew were there," Judge Baxter told the defendants. The court heard both defendants fled to , but were arrested later and gave 'no comment' answers to all police questions.
The judge described the shooting as a 'group revenge attack' and concluded the defendants continued to 'pose a risk of significant harm to members of the public'. "This was the discharge of a firearm into an occupied dwelling caused as an act of revenge," the judge added.
Both men have previous convictions for violence. Cull has previous convictions for possession of an imitation firearm and robbery. McNally has previous convictions for possession of a weapon, robbery and supplying class A drugs, the court was told.
Cull and McNally, both from Bolton, each admitted possession of a shotgun with intent to cause fear of violence and GBH. Cull, who also admitted a racially aggravated public order offence, was jailed for nine-and-a-half years while McNally received an eight-and-a-half year sentence. The pair waved and blew kisses to friends and family in the public gallery. One person was heard to say 'result'.