A man accused of carrying out four shootings and a gunpoint robbery told an associate "these Breck heads can f*** off" in a supposed "declaration of intent", a court has heard. "Established drug dealer" Damon Elliott was also said to have warned that "anyone talking pony" would "get full clip" during a series of messages around a year prior to the spate of attacks in Everton and Wavertree.
The alleged gunman is then accused of shooting two men in the testicles and forcing another to strip naked while threatening him with a firearm. He is currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court alongside two co-defendants, Kehinde Akinyele and Tony Clayton, in relation to the series of incidents, which are said to have come against the background of a dispute between rival groups based in the Kensington and Breck Road areas.
Prosecution opens case
Nigel Power KC, appearing for the crown, told a jury of seven men and five women during the prosecution's opening on Tuesday: "At about 25 past six on the evening of Friday, the 19th of May 2023, so, in broad daylight, a warehouse worker called Andrzej Roguziak was exercising in Wavertree Botanic Gardens while his young daughter and her friend played nearby. Nearby, on Botanic Road, a man called Vincent Kay was loading his car.
"Mr Roguziak and Mr Kay both heard a number of gunshots. Mr Roguziak's little girl saw a male in a group, dressed in black, holding a handgun, and saw the flash from its barrel. Two men wearing dark clothing drove away on a motorbike. Motorbikes, dark clothing and guns are going to become a signature of what you hear about during the trial."
About 20 minutes later, a teenager called Kayden Madine walked into the Royal Liverpool University Hospital with bullet wounds to his shoulder and his ankle. He had been in recent contact with the first defendant, Damon Elliott.
Further shootings described
Seven months later, now in darkness, a few minutes after midnight on Sunday, the 3rd of December 2023, a group of overseas students climbed to the top of Everton Park to see their first English snowfall. Sudharsan Ragu was photographing the view when shots were fired from a car.
"The car was in a car park on Rupert Lane, below him. A bullet went through his right thigh and lodged in his scrotum. Hours of surgery followed, then an arterial stent was inserted, and he is going to have to take medication for the rest of his life. But he was not the intended victim. It was a drug dealer called Wesley Hancock."
Ten days after that, in little more than half an hour on Wednesday, the 13th of December 2023, three more young men were attacked in Everton. Zac Cartwright, a drug user, was robbed at gunpoint and left naked in the street. Reece Jenkins-Lind, a drug dealer, was chased, robbed of his electric bike and shot through the thigh. Jamie McGivern, also a drug dealer, was shot four times to the legs and groin.
"The same gun fired every one of those shots that we have just described, probably something called a Grand Power self-loading pistol. The prosecution case is straight forward. We say that the first defendant, Damon Elliott, was the gunman on each occasion. On the final of those three dates, the 13th of December, we say that the second and third defendants, Tony Clayton and Kehinde Akinyele, rode with him and took a full part in the robberies and shootings that occurred."
'Mushroom him bro'
With Elliott, formerly of Adelaide Road in Kensington, described as being a drug dealer "associated with" a supply operation known at the "Ryan Line", the five separate incidents were alleged to have been undertaken "in support of this drugs line". Jurors were read a series of messages from August 15, 2022, in which the 27-year-old was said to have "provided a declaration of intent" and a "prediction of what was to happen" to Mr McGivern, known as "Jab", more than a year on.
These communications came just over a month after Elliott suffered injuries including a fractured skull and a bleed on the brain in an e-bike crash on Prescott Road on July 22 that year. In the messages to a man named Lewis Morgan, who was said to be "not responsible for any of the offences", he said: "When I'm back active, are we gonna shut every c*** down? We need to bro."
With Mr Morgan having replied "yeah, I'm up for it bro", Elliott went on to add "literally shut everybody down", which Mr Power said "meant reasserting their dominance in the local drug dealing scene". Of a further message, in which the former said "that's all Kenny needs", the prosecution silk told the court: "In other words, all Kensington needs for its drug supply is us."
Elliott then told Mr Morgan during the court of their four-minute exchange: "Yeah, just the real Kenny heads. Come on, you know what we're packing anyway."
Mr Morgan went on to state "you know the dance bro" and referred to "three sisters" after Elliott told him "there's three of them put to bed". Mr Power told the jury of this exchange: "What we will invite you to conclude about that is, what they are packing is three firearms put to bed, in other words, safely concealed."
Elliott thereafter added in the messages: "So anyone talk pony bro, they get full clip. These Breck heads need to f*** off. I was on the phone to them all before my crash, telling them all stop it by ours or you're all getting it."
Mr Morgan then responded "they'll get sent home back to Breck with the biggest holes in the sock they've seen" and, when asked by Elliott whether he was "on that Felton" who was said to have "got phoned by Kenny", said: "Yeah, I'm on him. Mushroom him bro."
Elliott subsequently replied: "With Jab as well. Told Jab straight to. Told him we come over Breck real soon, then me crash happened haha."
Mr Power said of the exchange: "What the prosecution say is that these messages show that Mr Elliott is a leading light in the drugs scene and he is local. He deals on his own patch in Kensington.
"Anybody from Breck Road trying to move in is going to be dealt with by firearms, and one of the people who was warned about this was Jab, Jamie McGivern. Albeit 16 months later, that is exactly what happened. Mr McGivern was shot by Damon Elliott, working together with the other two defendants."
Up to seven shots fired as teen struck in shoulder and ankle
The jury meanwhile heard that Elliott and Mr Madine, then aged 17, had been in contact prior to the latter being shot. A phone used by the former was meanwhile shown to be in the area of Wavertree Botanic Gardens immediately before and after the shooting, with the number "never actively used again" from around 10 minutes afterwards.
Mr Power said of the incident: "In the park that evening, five or six young males, dressed in black with their faces covered, sat near the walled garden with two homemade electric bikes by them. At about 6.20pm, two more came in from the Botanic Road entrance and walked over. Within minutes, shots were fired, perhaps as many as six or seven."
Mr Madine thereafter made his way to a nearby house and asked the occupant "for an ambulance or a car, because he had been shot". Another neighbour then drove the injured teenager to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, where he was found to have sustained gunshot wounds to his right shoulder, from which surgeons removed an intact bullet two days later, and left ankle, while a cartridge case recovered from the scene was subsequently found to be "approximately 62 million times more likely" to contain Elliott's DNA than not.
Elliott was 'established drug dealer in large supply network'
Elliott was first arrested in relation to the shootings on December 2, 2024, having made no comment under interview at this stage. During a second round of questioning in March this year, he then claimed that he suffered issues with his memory as a result of his "bad traffic accident" in 2022.
Mr Power told the court that Elliott denied any involvement in the firearms offences, but added: "He admits, however, that, at the time all of this was going on, he was an established drug dealer within a large supply network covering Kensington, Wavertree, London Road, Everton and elsewhere, in which up to 20 people worked and in which he had, as he puts it, an additional level of control. He admits having possessed ammunition, but he says he possessed that as payment in lieu of drug money, rather than for any shooting."
Elliott is meanwhile said to claim that his phone had not been used after May 19, 2023 as he had lost the device on this date. Mr Power added: "As to intention, the prosecution say that the pattern speaks for itself.
Throughout, the intent is to cause grievous bodily harm. That is what the prosecution have to prove. A loaded self-loading pistol, carried across the city and fired at close range time and time again, the prosecution say, speaks of only one intention."
Both 26-year-old Akinyele, of Gloucester Court in Kensington, and 29-year-old Clayton, of Baker Way in Kensington, deny possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, two counts of wounding with intent and two of robbery. Elliott has meanwhile pleaded not guilty to three charges of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, four of wounding with intent and two of robbery. The trial, before Judge Garrett Byrne, continues.
