A gang of men who travelled from Liverpool to Warrington to shoot an innocent man - at the behest of an alleged gangland figure abroad - were today found guilty.
Aaron Bretherton, Lewis Fitzpatrick and Anthony Morris were part of an armed team who plotted to target a rival, but instead ended up wrongly seriously injuring his step-dad.
Bretherton, 24, was the "shooter", Fitzpatrick, 26, the "fixer" or "arranger" and Morris, 23, the "wheels," investigators have proved.
Armed with a gun and carrying pizza boxes to make it seem like a fast food delivery, Bretherton knocked on a front door on Poplars Avenue, in the Orford area of Warrington.
The target was Liam Byrne Jr, a man previously jailed for four years in 2016 after being convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin, then aged 22.
But answering the door on the evening of April 24, 2020 - during Covid-19 lockdown - was his stepdad - David Barnes - who quickly shut the door when he realised the danger.
In recent days, his stepson had been provided with a notice from police that he was in danger of being attacked.
Four shots were fired, one of them hitting the 55-year-old in the leg which left him with life-changing injuries.
In a second attempted attack on the same day, the gang moved to the nearby Longford district, with intentions to visit a man called Charlie Cullen.
He was name-checked by prosecutors over the last few weeks at Liverpool Crown Court as the dad of Leon Cullen.
Again, a man with pizza boxes stood at the front door, but the present occupant who answered informed the caller Mr Cullen had moved away and no longer lived at the address.
That explanation appeared to be accepted by the would-be gunman who turned away and left.
The shooting plots, the trial has heard, were the wishes of an alleged gangland figure called Jamie Rothwell, who was directing operations from abroad.
The Salford man was ordering his potentially-deadly plans from a central base in Barcelona, Spain, it was said.
Today, a jury found Bretherton, Fitzpatrick and Morris guilty of a series of charges against them.
Find your nearest vaccination centre by entering your postcode below:
Bretherton, of Netherfield Road South in Everton was convicted of conspiracy to inflict grievous bodily harm.
He had already admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of a firearm, and that he shot Mr Barnes.
But he had denied being part of a wider conspiracy, and in touch and carrying out the order of Rothwell.
Instead, Bretherton tried to argue he was a "lone wolf", operating alone, but that explanation was waved away by police and prosecutors as "simply incredible."
Morris, of no fixed abode, and Fitzpatrick, of Eldersfield Road, Norris Green, were found guilty of conspiracy to inflict grievous bodily harm.
Rothwell handed out his orders using the encrypted Encrochat messaging service, it was heard, which has since been busted by European cyber experts.
The alleged gangster offered up a fee of £10,000 to attack Mr Byrne, and was tracked by investigators on the supposedly secret communication platform as he spoke of "doing them all."
Accomplices were observed, on the messages, to get to work on Rothwell's request, sourcing possible addresses for his intended victims.
Encrochat was a key part in which the shooting of Mr Barnes and the planned attack on Mr Cullen was arranged.
Rothwell used the "handle" user name of "Livelong" and was in communication with accomplices calling themselves, on the secret chat service, "Caperocket", "Slightdrake", "Racyocelot" and "Ballsniffer."
Fitzpatrick used the handle "Limeeagle."
A Glock 19 9mm handgun was recovered from the extractor of the cooker in Bretherton’s apartment, while ammunition and a magazine were found in the fan in the bathroom.
But this was not the weapon used in the shooting of Mr Barnes.
Bretherton told detectives he was minding the gun at his home for someone else.
