The getaway driver in a gangland drive-by shooting at an east London restaurant which left a nine-year-old girl with a bullet in her brain has been jailed for life.
Javon Riley, 33, drove the gunman to the Evin restaurant in Kingsland High Street in Dalston before shots were fired towards diners.
The shocking outburst of violence was part of a long-running gang feud between rival factions, the Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Turks.
The Old Bailey heard the injured young girl survived being shot in the head, but has been left with life-long struggles.
On Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, sentenced Riley to life in prison with a minimum term of 34 years for a “very carefully planned attack”, carried out in revenge for previous attacks in the gang feud.
“A nine-year-old girl and her family have to cope with life-changing injuries she has sustained through the mindless violence of you and others”, he said.
During his trial, Riley accepted that he is a serial robber and drug dealer, who said he would carry out as many as five robberies a month. He even boasted about his “success” in staying clear of police attention by only robbing other drug dealers and criminals.
The judge expressed shock at character references presented to the court for the sentencing hearing which praised Riley and claimed he is a “role model” for his own children.
“To me, it’s unclear they know what you do to make your money”, he said, listing Riley’s confessed criminal activities and convictions including weapons possession, violence, drugs, and dangerous driving.
The court heard Riley says he was hired for the shooting by the Tottenham Turks, rather than being a committed gang member.
He claimed to have been unaware of a plan for a shooting, but an Old Bailey jury found him guilty of the attempted murders of the three men sat in the restaurant as well as causing grievous bodily harm with intent to the girl.
The mother of the injured girl paid tribute in an impact statement read to the court to her strength and resilience in the face of daily struggles.
“We came here to give our daughter a better life”, she wrote.
“Instead, we now fight everyday for her survival, dignity, and small piece of happiness.”
Before the shooting, the girl loved music, dancing, sports, and gymnastics, the court heard.
But her mother said she now watches on with “frustration and silent pain” as her friends take part freely in those same activities.
“Every time we see her struggling, we ask ourselves why we came here, and what we could have done differently”, the mother said.
“We grieve for the dreams we once had for her.”
She added: “How many more families must live through this? How many more children must lose their futures to acts of senseless violence.
“This isn’t only about our daughter, it’s about the responsibility we all share to make our world safer, so no parent has to write a statement like this.”
The shooting happened on May 29 last year, when the girl was enjoying dinner with her family at the popular eatery. Mustafa Kiziltan, 35, Kenan Aydogdu, 45 and Nasser Ali, 44, were also among the diners, and are believed to have been the intended target of the gun attack.
A fourth man, also a member of the Hackney Turks, had been sitting with the men, but left before the shooting happened.
Riley had scoped out the restaurant in the days before the shooting, sitting opposite sipping a pina colada.
On the day of the attack, he drove past the scene in a stolen car to check that the intended targets were present.
He then returned on a Ducati Monster motorbike with the gunman on the back.
Six bullets were fired in total into the restaurant, striking the girl in the head and the men in their thigh, leg and backbone.
Riley, from Tottenham, claimed at trial that he had been offered £40,000 to be involved in a “smash and grab” robbery of 60 kilos of drugs – a claim rejected by the jury with its guilty verdicts.
However the judge said Riley had been heavily involved in the planning for the shooting, including timings that the intended victims would be at the restaurant and destroying vehicles and evidence in the aftermath.
The gunman remains on the loose, and the Met Police have offered a £15,000 for information that leads to his capture.
Asked at trial to name the gunman, Riley replied: “I cannot give you that. I fear for my safety and my family.”
