Teenagers jailed over shooting that sparked wave of violence

Jemele Rhone, who was 16 at the time, fell out with a 15-year-old boy in a minor dispute, claimed “disrespect” and blasted him with a sawn-off shotgun the next day.

Following the shooting there was a stabbing, tit-for-tat gang reprisals and homes attacked as extra police patrols were drafted in to the Wybourn estate in Sheffield.

Rhone went to ground for a month before he was arrested and residents were left frightened in their own homes as it took the police about seven weeks to restore normality to the estate.

Rhone and his pal Devon Walker, who was 17 at the time, were initially both charged with attempted murder but the prosecution accepted their lesser pleas of guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Walker was detained for nine years.

Jailing the pair, Judge Michael Murphy told them: “Sentences are needed to deter others and tell the public and other young men that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated.”

Nicholas Lumley QC, prosecuting, said Rhone and his victim Jason Marriott, 15, had a verbal confrontation in the street on February 17 last year.

Rhone, who knew Mr Marriott, armed himself with a sawn-off shotgun and went out to look for him the next day carrying the weapon. He met up with Walker who was wearing a balaclava and the pair approached the victim later that evening as he walked along Boundary Road towards Sky Edge Road.

Rhone ordered Mr Marriott to walk along a nearby ginnel or passageway and pulled the gun out of his trousers saying: “Don’t try to run or I’m going to shoot you.”

The gunman threatened to shoot the 15-year-old and anybody who got in his way then grabbed hold of his terrified victim’s right shoulder and told him to ring his father.

Mr Marriott telephoned his dad and told him about his plight before Walker joined in and urged the boy to hang up shouting: “Shoot him, just shoot him.”

Rhone grabbed the mobile and told the schoolboy to run saying “who do you think you are?” before referring to a perceived slight the previous day.

The gunman then told Mr Marriott to “run, run run” before he held the gun level with his chest and shot him. The victim was left with 50 shotgun pellets lodged in his upper left arm which began bleeding profusely.

Both defendants ran off while the 15-year-old went for help to his aunt’s nearby. Walker was arrested by two passing police officers while Rhone went into hiding for several weeks until he handed himself in. The gun was later found hidden near a doctor’s surgery with Rhone’s fingerprints on the barrel and cartridges were recovered. When arrested, Rhone told police he could remember nothing “extraordinary” about the day.

Mr Marriott spent ten days in hospital, required plastic surgery and continues to suffer pain.

Mr Lumley told Sheffield Crown Court the incident was aggravated because it was pre-meditated, it happened in a residential area and the gun was taken to the scene and then left where it could have been found by others.

Rhone, now 17, of Outram Road, Wybourn, and Walker, now 19, of Hamilton Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, both admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Rhone also admitted carrying a firearm in a public place.

Not guilty verdicts of attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life were recorded.

Rhone began offending at 13 and has previous convictions for violence and supplying heroin and cocaine. Walker has convictions for wounding and assault.

Afterwards Temporary Det Supt Zaf Ali said: “The activity at that time caused a great deal of fear and unrest for the decent people of the Wybourn area. I would like to thank the local residents for their help and support during this difficult investigation which greatly contributed to bringing these dangerous offenders to justice.”