Pair jailed for Manchester teenager's shooting murder

Giuseppe Gregory died in hospital from a single bullet wound

Two men must serve more than 20 years in prison for murdering a boy who was shot in the head in a revenge attack.

Giuseppe Gregory, 16, was killed while sitting in a car in a pub car park in Greater Manchester on 10 May 2009.

Njabulo Ndlovu, 19, and Hiruy Zerihun, 18, carried out the attack in revenge for the murder of Zerihun's friend Louis Brathwaite 15 months earlier.

They targeted Giuseppe's friends, who were in the car, because of their link to a rival gang, the Longsight Crew.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Giuseppe's killers were affiliated to Fallowfield Man Dem, a splinter group of the notorious Gooch Gang - rivals of the Longsight Crew.

Ndlovu, of Shackleton Court, Newton Heath, and Zerihun, of Lloyd Street South, Moss Side, were both jailed for life.

This was murderous crime of a kind which give rise to very great public concern, anxiety and fear Mr Justice Holroyde

Ndlovu was was ordered to serve a minimum of 21 years in prison, and Zerihun at least 23 years.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Holroyde said: "It is clear from the evidence heard this murder was gang-related and motivated by revenge.

"A bleak, dispiriting picture has emerged during the trial of young men engaged in wholly pointless inter-gang violence based, it would seem, on nothing more than an unfounded assertion by each rival gang of the right to claim a small area of south Manchester as its own and take reprisal at those of opposing gangs.

"This was murderous crime of a kind which give rise to very great public concern, anxiety and fear and does very great damage to society."

The jury heard that Zerihun and Ndlovu had hidden in bushes outside the Robin Hood pub in Stretford to launch their attack.

'Tragic and senseless'

A man rumoured to have shot Louis Brathwaite - but who was ruled out of police inquiries - was sitting in the front of the targeted VW Golf, the court heard.

Zerihun and Ndlovu, wearing balaclavas, emerged from the dark and sprayed the car with eight shots from a silver 9mm Tokarev.

Shots were fired at the car Giuseppe was in outside The Robin Hood pub

The three other passengers in the car escaped uninjured.

The murder weapon was found a month later when police were called to a disturbance at a house party in Gorton, Manchester.

Speaking after the hearing, Det Supt Paul Rumney, of Greater Manchester Police, described the murder as "tragic and senseless".

"It's important to stress that affiliation to gangs can be loose - it is not as simple as being a card-carrying member of one particular gang," he added.

"On the streets, people are targeted just because of their friends or relatives."

Both of the killers had denied murder and firearms offences.

DNA of Shadrach Phipps, 21, of Attwood Street, Longsight, and Michael Egerton, 22, of Buckley Avenue, Gorton, was also found on the murder weapon.

Phipps was convicted firearms offences and jailed for 10 years.

Egerton pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition. He was jailed for five years and four months.