A nine-year-old girl was shot in the head when a gunman on a motorbike opened fire during a ‘planned assassination’ between warring Turkish gangs, the Old Bailey has heard.
The youngster was seriously injured when a stray bullet from the drive-by shooting missed its target as she was eating dinner with her family at the Evin restaurant in Kingsland High Street in Dalston, east London, on May 29 last year, jurors were told.
Their alleged targets, Mustafa Kiziltan, Kenan Aydogdu and Nasser Ali – who the court heard are all linked to the Hackney Turks – were seated with others at a pavement table outside the busy restaurant and suffered wounds to various parts of their bodies.
Javon Riley, 33, denies four charges of attempted murder together with others and an alternative charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent against the girl, who cannot be named because of her age.
He is said to have played ‘a key role before, during and after the shooting’, which prosecutors say was orchestrated by the Tottenham Turks.
The gunman has never been tracked down.
On Tuesday, prosecutor James Mulholland KC said: ‘The prosecution case is that this was a planned assassination of members of a rival gang by Mr Riley and others.
‘This is evident from the degree of planning involved, his behaviour and comments before, during and after the event – as well as common sense.
‘Those who wanted this shooting to take place put the planning of the event under Mr Riley’s control, possibly with the assistance of others.’
Mr Mulholland added that the shooting appeared to have been part of ‘an ongoing dispute’ between two rival groups in London known as the Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Turks, also known as the ‘Bombacilars’, but the ‘immediate reason for it was unknown’.
He said: ‘These two gangs have had an intense rivalry for well over a decade which has involved the use of extreme violence towards one another during that period, and it is the prosecution case that what was intended was the murder of whomever was targeted.’
Those seated outside restaurant had affiliations towards the Hackney Turks and the ones who had ordered the shooting were from the Tottenham Turks, jurors heard.
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Mr Mulholland told them: ‘You will hear in conversations covertly recorded in a car used by Javon Riley sometime after the shooting that, although he was not a member of the Tottenham Turks, he clearly knew of them and was linked to them and that they were behind the shooting.’
It is not suggested that Riley fired the shots from the Ducati Monster motorbike which stopped briefly on the road outside the restaurant.
Jurors were told the rider ‘raised his right arm and fired six shots in quick succession’ which hit the three men sitting in a group outside, but also struck the little girl.
She has had to endure several intensive operations at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and the first had to be carried out the day after the shooting.
Mr Mulholland said: ‘Sections of her skull were removed to relieve swelling to the brain and these have since been replaced with a titanium plate. She was in hospital for three months before being allowed to return home.
‘Although she has made a relatively good recovery, she will continue to have physical and cognitive difficulties throughout her life.’
The wounded men were taken to Royal London Hospital where each was operated upon for serious injuries caused by bullet wounds to thigh, leg and backbone respectively.
Each appears to have made ‘a reasonable recovery’.
It is claimed that Riley was ‘vital in the carrying out of the plan to kill’.
The court heard that after the shooting, the gunman rode the motorbike to a nearby street where Riley was waiting in a stolen Nissan Juke on false plates before they ‘calmly’ headed to north London before transferring into Riley’s Range Rover.
Covert police recordings in the months after the shooting, show Riley talking about a man called Izzet Eren, who is linked to the Tottenham Turks and was shot in Moldova on July 10 last year in what was believed to be a revenge attack.
He also spoke about a man called ‘Kem’, whom the prosecution believe is Kemal Eren – one of those closely involved in the Tottenham Turks.
The trial continues.
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