A self-confessed robber has admitted picking up a gunman moments after a nine-year-old girl was hit in the head in a drive-by shooting but denied knowing about the plan.
The young victim was eating dinner with her family when the rider of a Ducati Monster motorbike fired six shots outside Evin restaurant in Kingsland High Street in Dalston, east London, on May 29 last year.
A bullet lodged in the girl’s brain and three men sitting an another table were wounded in the thigh, leg and backbone, the Old Bailey has heard.
Javon Riley allegedly picked up the gunman nearby in a stolen Nissan Juke on false plates before transferring to a Range Rover in north London, the Old Bailey has heard.
The 33-year-old defendant is also accused of carrying out reconnaissance before the shooting and helping the gunman evade arrest.
Giving evidence on Thursday, Riley admitted being involved in various lucrative crimes but denied knowing anything about the shooting.
Defence barrister Tyrone Smith KC asked: “Do you accept the evidence shows you on 29th May drove the gunman from Colvestone Crescent shortly after he had shot and injured three men and a young girl?”
The defendant replied: “Yes.”
Mr Smith went on: “At the time did you know he had shot those people at the restaurant?”
Riley replied: “No.”
Mr Smith said: “Were you part of a plan or agreement that a shooting take place that night?”
Riley, who grew up in Walthamstow after emigrating from Jamaica as a boy, denied it.
He told jurors that he had left college at the age of 18 and had three children with two different partners, as well as at least four other girlfriends or “friends with benefits” living around London.
Riley said he had set up his own delivery business, had an interest in a clothes brand with friends, and made money from “various stuff of criminality”.
The court heard Riley has a string of convictions dating back to 2008 including for possession of cannabis and cocaine, driving offences, and having an offensive weapon and a blade in his car.
In addition, the defendant said he had been involved with stealing cars, drug dealing and robberies, although he had never been caught for those offences.
He said he began taking cars “for fun” at the age of 15, going on to steal them to order and shipping them abroad.
He picked drug dealers to rob because the money could not be traced and the victims were unlikely to go to police, jurors heard.
Mr Smith asked: “What would be the consequences if a drug dealer identified you as someone who had robbed them?”
Riley replied: “My life would be in danger.”
The defendant said he would carry out between two and five robberies a month, sometimes working with others, and would make anything from £30,000 to more than £200,000.
Asked about his role in the robberies, Riley said: “Sometimes I’m the driver or the muscle.”
The defendant said that although he would sometimes carry a knife, he would never be armed with a gun because it was too risky and he would go “straight to jail” if caught.
Riley told jurors he would sometimes sell on drugs he had stolen from dealers.
The prosecution has alleged the shooting was a “planned assassination” amid an ongoing dispute between rival gangs, the Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Turks, also known as the “Bombacilars”.
Men seated outside the restaurant had affiliations towards the Hackney Turks and the ones who had ordered the shooting were from the Tottenham Turks, it is claimed.
Riley, from Tottenham, north London, has denied attempted murder together with others and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to the girl, who cannot be named because of her age.
The Old Bailey trial continues.
