A nine-year-girl was shot in the head while eating inside a Turkish restaurant with her family when a gunman on a motorbike opened fire during “a planned assassination” of rival gang members, a court has heard.
The girl, who cannot be named, will suffer “physical and cognitive difficulties throughout her life” after a bullet lodged in her brain, the Old Bailey heard.
A stray bullet “tragically struck” the girl when the gunman on a Ducati Monster fired six shots in two seconds at a group sitting on a table outside Evin restaurant in Dalston, east London, on the evening of 29 May 2024.
The gunman has not been apprehended. Javon Riley, 33, is on trial at the Old Bailey, where he has pleaded not guilty to four charges of attempted murder and an alternative charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent against the girl, who cannot be named because of her age.
