A 33-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 34 years for his role in a gangland shooting outside an east London restaurant that left a nine-year-old girl with a bullet lodged in her brain.
Javon Riley, from Tottenham, north London, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of causing grievous harm with intent to the girl and attempting to murder three men. The attack occurred on 29 May last year in Kingsland High Street, Hackney, as the girl ate ice cream with her family at the Evin restaurant.
The girl was an innocent victim of a feud between two rival Turkish gangs, the Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Turks. Sentencing Riley on Friday, Judge Lucraft KC described the shooting as part of an ongoing rivalry that has seen a series of tit-for-tat murders in London and overseas.
Riley carried out reconnaissance of the restaurant, scouted for targets, and drove the gunman away in a stolen car that was later burned out. The gunman remains at large. Scotland Yard has offered up to £15,000 for information leading to his arrest.
The nine-year-old girl spent three months in hospital and will suffer lifelong physical and cognitive problems. Her mother's victim impact statement, read to the court, described how the family had moved to the UK for a brighter future but now face constant fear and grief.
