Bishop had 200 calls over murders

The girls were shot on 2 January

Britain's first senior black bishop has revealed he took 200 phone calls at home from people with information about the murders of Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare.

The Right Reverend John Sentamu, the Anglican Bishop of Birmingham, offered his home number to help police find potential witnesses to the New Year atrocity.

Speaking as he celebrated his first year in post, he said: "I offered my phone number and address to anybody who wanted to speak to me.

"I spoke to 200 people encouraging them that if they went and gave a witness statement, the police would provide protection."

Bishop Sentamu said he could not pass on names to the police himself as that would breach his role as a pastor.

The Bishop was a lawyer in Uganda before becoming a clergyman.

Seriously wounded

Five men have been charged with the murders of friends and college art students Charlene, 18, and Letisha, 17, who were gunned down in a hail of bullets outside a party at a hairdresser's salon in Birmingham in the early hours of 2 January.

One of the defendants, 23-year-old Marcus Ellis, is the half-brother of Charlene and her twin sister Sophie, who was seriously wounded in the incident.

He and his co-accused have also been charged with the attempted murder of Sophie, the sisters' cousin, Cheryl Shaw, and another man, Leon Harris, who were also injured.

Ellis, of Devonshire Road, Winson Green, Birmingham, and the other defendants are due to appear before Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday after being remanded in custody last week by the city's magistrates' court.

They are: Tafarwa Theodore Beckford, 21, of Devonshire Road, Ladywood, Birmingham; Michael Gregory, also 21, of Ryland Street, Ladywood; Nathan Antonio Martin, 24, of St Albans Road, Smethwick, West Midlands; and Rodrigo Fernando Simms, 19, of Whitehouse Drive, Smethwick.