The chaotic and criminal world of young thugs involved in the Woodchurch organised crime group was revealed on the phone of a wounded drug dealer.
Curtis Byrne was shot in the legs on Orrets Meadow Road, on the Woodchurch estate in Wirral, shortly after 8pm on Saturday, December 3. The ECHO has been told the attack is suspected of being carried out by members of another prominent Wirral organised crime group based in the Beechwood estate.
The ECHO previously reported that residents took refuge upstairs in their homes after hearing "two shots separated by a scream". A man who was hit by these bullets was then seen being "dragged" through gardens by another in search of safety.
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That shooting came during an unprecedented year of gun crime on the Wirral. Other incidents included a drive by shooting, in full view of children, that left a man fighting for his life in March on Hoole Road, only a short distance away from where Byrne was shot.
Another man was shot in the arm on Newark Close, on the other side of the M53 between Noctorum and the Woodchurch estate on 9.15pm on Saturday, December 17.
In the perhaps vain hope that Byrne would assist in identifying the gunman, detectives visited him in Aintree Hospital two days after the shooting.
But Liverpool Crown Court heard this week that the 21-year-old was "unable to provide any reason why anyone would want to shoot him". The officers then asked to look at his mobile phone "to see if anything on it could assist their investigation".
The young man aroused suspicions when he began deleting things from the handset. However Byrne, who appeared in court via video link to HMP Altcourse and walked with the use of a crutch, eventually handed the phone over and provided the pin.
When analysed, it revealed that he had been involved in the supply of cocaine and cannabis and a string of burglaries in which high value cars and motorbikes were stolen. Detectives found a "large number of fairly short video clips" showing large bags of cannabis and blocks of cannabis resin and "conversations" with customers over the course of several months.
Messages showed contacts "regularly asking" to purchase drugs from him, with Byrne "seeming to have no difficulty in fulfilling these requests". Several "tick lists" were also discovered in his notes app, showing monies owed to him totalling several thousands of pounds.
Byrne was revealed to have been involved in five separate burglaries across Wirral between July and November last year, where he appeared to have been stealing a BMW car, Triumph and Kawasaki motorbikes and electric bicycles "to order".
After one of the burglaries, on August 1 at a property in Glenwood Drive, Irby, Byrne had used the internet to browse adverts selling the same type of e-bike he had just stolen, and later exchanged messages on TikTok attempting to sell it for £700 - although he admitted that he did not have the charger or keys.
The total value of the BMW and bikes taken, some of which were never returned, was an estimated £36,000. Byrne was arrested on December 22, after the device was analysed - with a quantity of cannabis, suspected counterfeit currency, a black balaclava and the battery from an electric bike seized from him.
Byrne later admitted conspiracy to commit burglary and theft and being concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis.
John Weate, defending Byrne, told the court: "There is an overtone of gang involvement in this, and he accepts that. He is someone who maybe can be turned around in his life.
"He is a young man who has found his life in prison very difficult, that as a consequence of the injuries he has suffered. The desire is that he becomes fully fit and is able to have a full and active life."
Sentencing, Recorder Jeremy Lasker said: "Despite your protestations to the contrary, the fact that you were in hospital as the victim of a shooting underscores the fact that in the latter half of last year you were involved in serious offending. During that period, you were actively involved in illicit drug supply.
"You were part of a team which embarked upon planned expeditions to steal either motor vehicles or motorbikes. Inevitably, you were operating under the cover of darkness and you and others were prepared to steal from those premises while your victims were asleep.
"The evidence demonstrates that, on occasions, you went out fully tooled up to commit these offences. I do infer that some of these vehicles were stolen to order."
Judge Lasker jailed Byrne for seven years.
The high-profile incidents in the Woodchurch estate last year led to fears of innocent people being hurt in the crossfire of warring gangs. Wirral local policing Inspector Alan McKeon told the ECHO in December how the Woodchurch and Beechwood organised crime groups were considered a serious threat to public safety, and were regularly discussed by senior level Merseyside Police officers at high level meetings.
He said: "Every week we look at where threats exist on a force level, and consistently [the Woodchurch OCG] come if not top, then they're pretty much the top three. Potentially they could work with groups from outside of the area, such as Liverpool, or even the wider area again across the North West."
Insp. McKeon also warned about the potential for innocent people to be caught in the crossfire of what her described as "warring factions". He said: "If you have these factional disputes ongoing, and people using firearms in anger towards each other, we've seen in the last 12 months, with Olivia Pratt-Korbel being the obvious example, and even Rhys Jones prior to that and plenty of others in between, there are just absolutely innocent people who get caught in the crossfire of these people."
Those predictions came tragically true on Christmas Eve, when 26-year-old beautician Elle Edwards was shot in the head outside the Lighthouse Inn pub on Wallasey Village.
Detectives have said they do not believe Elle was the intended target. Connor Chapman, 22, from Houghton Road in Woodchurch, has since been charged with her murder and is set to stand trial later this year.
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