A 16-year-old boy led a mob of teenage thugs in three shootings and a terrifying arson attack.
Harry O'Brien controlled a "graft" line and a crew of dealers selling cannabis on the streets of Dingle. But his "lucrative" trade was exposed after a "feud" led to three shootings in three weeks in South Liverpool.
One attack saw bullets fired from an Audi at a BMW, as the two cars raced side-by-side through the city at night. A stray bullet flew through the front door of an "entirely innocent" family's home and landed on their hallway stairs.
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A gunman on an electric bike peppered a family's living room with bullets and fired into another victim's bedroom. Finally, O'Brien had petrol poured through the letterbox of a mum's home and set ablaze, as she and her children ran for their lives.
O'Brien is still aged just 17. But the ECHO today convinced one of Liverpool's top judges it was in the public interest to lift reporting restrictions in his case, so we can reveal the brutality he brought to the streets of this city, between December 2020 and June 2021.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the attacks targeted members and associates of two families, the Franchettis and the Rosarios. Judge Neil Flewitt, QC, said he had no doubt they were "the manifestation of a feud" between O'Brien's gang and "others" with "whom they had a real or perceived grievance, the nature of which has not emerged". He said: "Unhappily, the lives of wholly innocent people, including young children, were put at risk by the callous and cowardly actions of all those involved."
O'Brien planned and took part in all three shootings, "orchestrated the arson", and the cannabis plot was "his enterprise". David Temkin, QC, prosecuting, said: "Harry O'Brien was at the heart of the criminality in this case."
Michael McClean, then 16, and Aaron Donohoe, then 19, were his "lieutenants", given "managerial responsibility" over his drug trade. "Trusted" Daniel Lawler, 19, joined O'Brien in carrying out two of the shootings, which all involved the same Glock semi-automatic gun - never recovered by police.
The first shooting took place late on December 29, 2020, after the unknown occupants of a silver BMW X5, driving around Dingle looking for O'Brien and his gang, deliberately "rammed" into another BMW. It was being driven by O'Brien's mum, Christine McPartland, with her son, McClean, Donohoe and an unknown fourth male onboard.
She rang police at 10.30pm to report the crash in Beresford Road. Her son and his gang fled, as Donohoe called Lawler, who previously helped acquire a stolen Audi on false plates. Mr Temkin said: "What happened next was revenge."
Now armed with a loaded gun, O'Brien, McClean, Donohoe and the fourth male set off in the Audi, with banned driver McClean at the wheel. Three shots were fired at the BMW in Dingle Lane, with one piercing the front door of a "shocked" couple and their seven-year-old child's home.
Mr Temkin said: "They were in the process of going to bed. They heard screeching car tyres and found a bullet on the hallway stairs."
The QC said evidence given by Lawler at trial revealed O'Brien was in "some sort of dispute" with "the Franchetti and Rosario family". Over the next three weeks, while staying at the Staybridge Suites Hotel in Keel Wharf, O'Brien arranged buying a Sur-Ron electric bike.
O'Brien and Lawler set off on the bike - one armed with the pistol - on January 8, 2021. Just after 8.45pm, Donna Rosario rang police to say shots were fired at her Sundridge Street home.
Mr Temkin said: "She, her partner Ian Franchetti, and their daughter were at home in the living room at the time." Three bullets were found embedded in her living room wall and ceiling.
Just after 1am on January 20, O'Brien and Lawler, on the same bike, targeted the Heffey family, in Beloe Street. They fired at an upstairs bedroom.
Mr Temkin said: "This was where 24-year old Joel Heffey was asleep. Joel Heffey and Ian Franchetti junior were associates."
The gang next targeted the Dingle Lane house of Claire Bowness, at home with her three teenage children. Mr Temkin said: "Notably they were all from the Rosario family. Ian Franchetti senior is those children's uncle."
The QC said this arson attack was the "brainchild" of O'Brien, who sought the help of a 14-year-old boy, from Toxteth, who cannot be named for legal reasons. O'Brien also enlisted Sian Kanu, then 19, who recruited Mohammed Mohammed, then 19, to carry out the attack.
The boy filled a petrol canister at a Shell garage on Aigburth Road on February 1. It was taken by Mohammed to Ms Bowness' home on February 5, just after 8am.
Mr Temkin said: "The fire spread some way into the property, moving from the hallway, to the staircase and to the upper floor. Claire Bowness and the Rosario children, with their dog, managed to escape out of the rear of the property. However, they all required medical treatment for smoke inhalation."
On February 12, police raided the home of O'Brien's grandparents, who lived next door to him in Buckland Street, Aigburth. They found £13,590 in cash in a plastic bag in the loft. One note bore their grandson's fingerprint.
O'Brien was also seen with wads of cash at the Adagio Hotel and Elif restaurant in Liverpool city centre on April 26. He was arrested at his aunt's home in Aigburth Road on July 1, where police found some £5,000 of cannabis plus cash, mobile phones, two knives and an axe.
Police also raided the Lee Park Avenue, Belle Vale home of Nathan Kelly, 28, a customer of O'Brien's gang, on April 21. Officers found a .22 rimfire revolver loaded with eight bullets in a disused fish tank on his balcony.
They also discovered a bag containing 36 Remington .22 cartridges suitable for the gun and nine other bullets. In communal gardens outside, police recovered a New Army 1892 Colt .41 revolver, wrapped in a black bin bag and covered with soil.
Following a spate of arrests, those said to be involved in the shootings and arson attack were charged with conspiring to possess a firearm, and to commit arson, both with intent to endanger life.
Ahead of a trial, O'Brien admitted lesser offences of conspiring to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, and conspiring to commit arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered, which the Crown accepted. He had already admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis.
Richard Pratt, QC, defending, said O'Brien had "diagnoses in the past of ADHD" and was described as "a risk taker". He added: "It may well be those illnesses, through no fault of his own, have contributed to this conduct."
Judge Flewitt locked O’Brien up for nine years and eight months, with an extended three years on licence. He must serve at least two thirds of that sentence behind bars, before he can apply for parole.
Lawler, 21, of Halewood Road, Woolton, was found guilty of the firearm plot and admitted unrelated charges of dangerous driving and handling stolen goods. He was locked up for eight years, with an extended two years on licence. He too must serve at least two thirds of that term.
McClean, 18, of Upper Warwick Street, Toxteth, admitted the cannabis and firearm plots. At trial he admitted two counts of possessing a prohibited firearm and possessing ammunition. He was locked up for eight and a half years.
Donohoe, 20, of Bewey Close, Toxteth, admitted the cannabis and firearm plots, on the basis he was only involved in the first shooting. He was locked up for six years and four months.
Jurors couldn't reach a verdict against Kanu, 20, of Amity Street Toxteth, on the arson plot. He later admitted participating in the criminal activities of an organised crime group. He was locked up for two years and three months.
Also at trial, the unnamed boy, now 15, admitted the arson plot. He was handed a two-year Youth Rehabilitation Order, with a six-month home curfew, between 8pm and 7am daily.
Mohammed, 20, of Kingsley Road, Toxteth, and Kelly, 28, of Lee Park Avenue, will be sentenced at later dates.
