Two men convicted over the blasting of a shotgun at a mum's house while her one-year-old child was inside in a revenge attack have been jailed for a total of 27 years.
Aaron Giles was the prime mover behind a plot to shoot at Sharna Hadaway's home after becoming embroiled in an ongoing dispute involving tit-for-tat incidents with her partner, Ryan Carr. Giles recruited taxi driver Kevin Chapman to take him to and from the scene and an unidentified third man to pull the trigger.
Shocking CCTV footage captures the moment the masked gunman blasts two shots from a sawn-off shotgun and the front door in South Shields, causing the whole house to shake.
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Giles, 29, of Richardson Avenue, South Shields, and Chapman, 40, of Hawthorne Avenue, South Shields, were both cleared of conspiracy to murder but convicted of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. Now Giles has been jailed for 15 years while Chapman got 12 years.
Sentencing them at Newcastle Crown Court, Mr Justice Martin Spencer said: "The gunman discharged both barrels into the front door, thereby endangering the lives of all those in the house, including Sharna Hadaway's one-year-old son.
"I don't accept submissions that the damage to the inner lounge door was so slight no-one's life was endangered. Anyone in the way of that shout would be in mortal danger. Thankfully no-one was in fact hurt or killed.
"There was a high risk of death or severe physical injury."
During the trial, Sharna said she was standing at her back door having a cigarette when someone opened fire at her house. She said she told Ryan someone had shouted for him and he went to the front door to look but couldn't see anyone. She said he came back in and they were just about to talk when the first gunshot happened, followed a couple of seconds later by a second bang.
She told police in a video-recorded interview: "The first one shook the full house. Before my brain could register the first one, it happened again. It was bang...bang."
Sharna added: "I thought someone had taken a sledgehammer to my door. I never in a million years thought it would be a gun. It was ridiculous, it shook the whole house. My son woke up and started screaming.
"Ryan ran outside and I ran upstairs. Then panic set in. I wanted my son out of the house." She said she rang her nana to ask her to collect her son.
She added that she then asked Ryan what had happened. "He said someone has just shot your door," she said. "Even he was in shock. I don't think he believed what was happening."
Sharna said: "There were massive holes in the door, I could see inside the house and all the shatter on the floor from the door. Ryan had run down the street and he came back and said someone had shot the door.
"I didn't want to believe it, it just didn't register with me. I felt ill."
She said her young son would often play with the letter box but was upstairs in bed at the time of the shooting, which woke him up. Sharna said: "When I went upstairs he was screaming."
It was at 8.36pm on Wednesday September 21 last year when the shotgun was blasted through the door on Brownlow Road, South Shields. Before the shooting, CCTV footage shows Chapman's Skoda taxi driving past and a voice from inside the taxi, who prosecutors say was Giles trying to lure Mr Carr out, shouts 'Ryan. Ryan. Ebanks'.
The court heard the Skoda then came past again and Giles can again be heard shouting his name. Then he shouts 'go on, go on' as encouragement to the gunman, who moves towards the house and opens fire.
The court heard Giles, who has 19 previous convictions but has never been to prison before, has a difficult childhood and has mental health issues and has done work to tackle youth offending in the community.
As a consequence of the offending, Chapman, whose only previous conviction is for possessing amphetamine, has lost his relationship, destroyed his chances of employment and his "life is in ruins" as a result of his being persuaded to become involved, the court heard.
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