A number of Merseyside's violent criminals have been more than willing to use military grade weaponry like grenades to wreak devastation across communities.
The ECHO has reported on a number of terrifying cases in the city's crown court where the defendant has faced charges relating to the possession and use of the weapons. Grenades, or "pineapples" as they are referred to on the encrypted network EncroChat, have been used in several high profile cases in Merseyside.
In 2009 a grenade was found outside Liverpool FC legend Kenny Dalglish's home. Two men were arrested nearby after security guards were alerted to their suspicious activity.
READ MORE: Mum fighting for her life in Turkey after collapsing in airport
It later transpired violent thugs Mark Johnston and Tony Downes had conspired to send crooks to the area to blow up the home of a businessman - but the grenade was found stashed in shrubbery on the wall of Dalglish's home after they got spooked.
Other cases have seen some of the region's most violent criminals wreak fear and destruction through a series of targeted grenade attacks, while the courts have also heard how criminals exploited those "less sophisticated" to mind their weapon stashes.
Here are eight thugs whose crimes have involved the possession or use of the military grade weaponry.
Paul Cox
Dingle man Paul Cox was jailed after being caught minding a Skorpion sub-machine gun and a live hand grenade. Liverpool Crown Court heard how officers discovered the lethal weapon in the airing cupboard of Cox's home. A large number of rounds of ammunition were found alongside the Skorpion gun.
A live hand grenade was also recovered when police raided the 59-year-old's house in Netherby Street, Dingle, but he was cleared by a jury of possessing an unlawful explosive substance for an unlawful purpose after a trial. The jury were not satisfied he knew the grenade was in his home. He pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited weapon, the Skorpion gun, and the ammunition.
Martin Reid, prosecuting, said police went to the defendant’s home on September 19 last year and in the airing cupboard found a Tupperware container inside a pillow case. Inside it was the sub-machine gun, capable of being fired in semi-automatic and automatic mode, and a number of loaded magazines.
The package also contained rounds of ammunition, most of which were viable and suitable for use in the weapon. A total of more than 100 rounds were found. The court heard Cox's role was "as a custodian".
Mr Reid said: “While he may not have intended to use it he was reckless whether it would have been used for illicit purposes. It could not have been used by anyone other than serious criminals.” Brendan Carville, defending, said Cox was “a loner with a serious drink problem who suffers from epilepsy. He was the sort of man who could fall prey to those more sophisticated in crime.”
Sentencing Cox to five years in prison on Monday, May 14, Judge Brian Cummings, KC said a total of 149 rounds of ammunition were found at his home, including 61 loose rounds found on a shelf.
Judge Cummings said: “You were reckless whether it would be used for criminal purposes. And what else should it have been used for?”
John Farrell
Kirkby man John Farrell was found with five grenades in his loft when police swooped on his house during a major investigation, codenamed Operation Bandit. During the investigation into a Kirkby drug gang, police swooped on the Minstead Avenue venue of a meeting, after a separate police team found his associate on the way there with 492g of cocaine with a purity of 87% and a potential street value of between £19,714 and £49,287.
Police arrested Farrell and discovered a locked safe bolted to the wall. The safe was removed, opened and, inside, 7kg of cocaine with a potential street value of between £277,305 and £691,487 was revealed.
A search team then returned to the property, discovering an arsenal of weapons hidden in the loft. The cache included two revolvers – one of which was loaded – a sawn-off shotgun, ammunition and five grenades. While they were hunting for evidence the Nash brothers fled to Spain.
Farrell, 40, and of Minstead Avenue in Kirkby, admitted two counts of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracies to possess a firearm, ammunition, an explosive substance and to supply Class A drugs. He was jailed for 16 years at Manchester Crown Court on April 14, 2021.
Tony Downes and Kirk Bradley
Two men who orchestrated a wave of shootings and grenade attacks across Merseyside were busted out of a prison van before fleeing for Amsterdam in 2011. Kirk Bradley and Tony Downes escaped when a masked gang busted them out of a G4S van on their way to a high profile trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
The pair fled to Amsterdam where they lived the high life before authorities finally caught up with them and brought them back to the UK to face justice. Bradley and Downes ran a criminal network between 2009 and 2010, and their wave of attacks saw hand grenades thrown at family homes, and rivals kidnapped and shot.
The gang was responsible for 20 separate incidents across Merseyside, which included seven grenade incidents. On one occasion a grenade was accidentally left outside the Birkdale home of Kenny Dalglish.
The 'blood brothers' presided over a guns-for-hire gang which executed contract violence for cash. Rivals were kneecapped, kidnapped and family homes blown up with hand grenades. In one shocking incident, the gang threw grenades into a room where a gran was babysitting a seven-year-old boy. Other victims suffered life changing injuries after being shot.
Downes, described as the gang’s chief executive, was accused of directing much of the violence from his cell at Liverpool’s Walton jail. After their escape, Downes and Bradley were both caught and brought back to Britain to serve out life sentences. The gang who freed them from the van have so far evaded justice.
Mark Johnston
Mark Johnson was jailed for his role in planning a grenade attack along with Huyton criminal Tony Downes. The pair were sent to prison in 2006 after planning to rob a security van collecting money from Batley's Cash and Carry in Whiston.
Johnston, of MacQueen Street, Old Swan, was jailed for nine years and Downes sentenced to seven years in prison. The two pals were later 'padded up' together at HMP Liverpool, where they shared the same cell. And in 2009 they both became embroiled in a plot to blow up a businessman's home in Birkdale.
On a Sunday night in late July a security guard spotted suspicious activity outside an exclusive Selworthy Road home. He raised the alarm and police were called to the scene. Two men were arrested nearby, and then police found a grenade had been left outside the home of Kenny Dalglish.
It later transpired that Johnston and Downes had conspired to send two crooks to the area to blow up the home of a businessman - but the grenade was found stashed in shrubbery on the wall of the home of the LFC legend after the men got 'spooked'. Johnston, who admitted conspiring to cause damage and being reckless as to whether life would be endangered, was jailed for eight years with an extended licence period.
Johnston was released on licence on January 25, 2016. He was later recalled to prison in September 2017 after he breached the terms of his licence.
Michael Hoy, formerly known as Michael Brown
A murderer released early from a life sentence was given a new life sentence by Liverpool Crown Court on January 21, 2022 for his role as an EncroChat drug dealer who tried to place himself at the heart of the gun and grenade trade. Michael Brown was one of two doormen who stabbed to death innocent Colin McGinty after mistaking the 21-year-old for a gangland rival.
In 2001 he was sentenced to life with a recommended minimum term of 18 years for his part in the horrific attack, in which his victim was stabbed 15 times on a Bootle street. Following his release in 2017 after serving just 16 years behind bars, Michael Brown changed his name to Michael Hoy and went into landscaping work in an apparent attempt to stay out of trouble.
However, Liverpool Crown Court heard he quickly returned to a prominent position within the region’s underworld through his use of a device featuring the encrypted messaging service EncroChat using the codename TimelyBeta. Hoy, of Cranford Road in Garston, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin, a separate count of conspiracy to supply cocaine and conspiracy to supply the Class B drugs cannabis, ketamine and amphetamines.
He was linked to dealing around 8kgs of cocaine, 1kg of heroin and at least 40kgs of Class B drugs. Damian Nolan, defending Hoy, said his client still maintained his innocence and that he had been wrongly linked to the EncroChat handle TimelyBeta.
This was despite evidence showing that his contacts nicknamed him “life” - an apparent reference to the life term he served - and that, when asked by his associate TaxingCanine what his real name was, the account’s response referred to Hoy’s former name in a message that simply read: “I’m Mike Brown.”
Mr Nolan said that, although his client quickly returned to serious criminality following his release from jail for murder, there did appear to be an initial attempt to stay out of trouble.
He said Hoy started up a landscaping and gardening business that attracted lucrative contracts before hitting trouble when the construction company Carillion collapsed then suffering personal issues.
Mr Nolan said all he could ask for was that the judge imposed as small a sentence as possible, adding: “He is a man who, but for a number of years that can be counted on one hand, has been in prison his entire adult life.”
Patrick Murray
EncroChat dealer Patrick Murray was handed a life sentence on January 22, 2022, along with associate Michael Hoy after their discussions over AK47s, pistols and ‘pineapples’ - slang for grenades - were obtained by detectives.
Both men used phones loaded with EncroChat - and when the system was hacked in an international criminal investigation it led to the messages of thousands of users becoming available to police.
That included those of Murray, whose EncroChat codename was WeirdGun, and Hoy, who used the handle TimelyBeta. Pictures sent by Murray, many to Hoy, included grenades, AK47s, an Uzi and a number of handguns with silencers. This helped secure their downfall.
Judge Robert Trevor-Jones accepted there was no evidence Hoy or Murray acquired any grenades but concluded they were involved in trading the “highly dangerous explosive devices which are normally only associated with military use”. Of the gun charges, the judge said: “Once more it is clear that you, Patrick Murray, and you, Michael Hoy, were arranging to trade in such items at a significant level.”
Murray admitted conspiracy to possess explosives and conspiracies to possess, purchase or acquire prohibited firearms and ammunition. The 25-year-old, of Gloucester Road in Huyton also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply around 5kgs of cocaine and 3.75kgs of heroin.
Liam Cornett
One of Liverpool's most notorious criminals was brought down by an investigation sparked by a mum accidentally setting off a home-made grenade stored on top of a wardrobe at her Dingle home. Police officers who attended discovered the device had been part of a criminal stash that included 158kg of amphetamines and just under a kilogram of cocaine, an illicit haul valued at £1.6m.
Liam Cornett, known as The Lam, was already well known to Merseyside Police, but this investigation brought an end to his Playboy lifestyle. The 31-year-old, who typically operated from Spain but had a home on Roby Road, is already serving a 26 year term for conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs.
He was jailed in December 2019, aged 29, after a major investigation unravelled his international network. The North West Regional Organised Crime Unit found Cornett controlled a sprawling enterprise that ran from his Costa del Sol base to estates in Anfield, Hull, Cardiff and Devon.
READ NEXT:
'Filthy' London Road restaurant where vinegar used to clean surfaces
24 words that don't mean what non-Scousers think they mean
Merseyrail address passengers' common complaint over new trains
Man stashed Skorpion machine gun inside a pillow case in his airing cupboard
Boots shoppers praise 'glowy' £14 foundation that's 'better than Charlotte Tilbury'
