On a cold October night in 2016, an Audi crashed into a metal fence on Walton Street after a brief police chase that caused two men inside to flee on foot.
However, PC Helsby, one of the police officers chasing the car, unknowingly came across a much more sinister accident than a dangerous driving case. As the officer and his colleague approached the crashed car on Cairo Street, they realized that someone had been trapped in the trunk.
Inside, police found 44-year-old drug dealer Kenneth Murphy “in terrible shape.” He was hit with a lever and beaten to the point that one of his eyes was swollen, he was covered in blood from a deep laceration on his forehead, and he was “absolutely petrified and begging for help.”
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Mr Murphy’s abduction and torture were carried out by the so-called Deli Mob, named after the Delamore Street area of Kirkdale. The ruthless, extremely violent and fearsome street gang in North Liverpool has been thrown back into the headlines in recent weeks thanks to the sentencing of Jonathan Gordon, who has been linked to the gang for more than a decade.
Gordon, 34, was sued for hacking the EncroChat telephone network, which revealed that he advertised his services as a brutal attacker, ready to throw acid in the faces of rivals for money. Reports intercepted by the National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed that Gordon had charged £ 6,000 for an acid attack, up to £ 10,000 if the client wanted the victim to be blinded permanently.
Gordon spilled acid in the face of a man in St. Helens in April 2019, causing severe injuries to his eyes and making him need intensive treatment to restore his sight. But a check of the EncroChat account used by Gordon, with the ValuedBridge handle, led detectives to understand that he was involved in a number of serious firearms crimes, including involvement in gunfights on the streets of Liverpool, one that saw how a wandering bullet flew through a window at the address of an elderly couple in Carisbrook Road, Kirkdale, in May 2020.
Gangland striker Jonathan Gordon (Image: NCA)
Gordon was found guilty of three counts of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm; two charges of possession of a life-threatening firearm and one charge of conspiracy to possess a life-threatening firearm and will be convicted on Wednesday along with two accomplices; Dylan Johnston, 27, and Stephen Wisset, 28.
Gordon has never been charged in connection with the 2016 Murphy attack, but he has documented links to those involved. Merseyside police will learn that Mr Murphy was driving an Audi when he was detained by two other vehicles at an intersection in Norris Green.
Masked men jumped from the other cars, smashed the driver’s windshield and pulled Mr Murphy out of the car, at which point he was hit on the head with a lever and repeatedly hit before being crammed into the boot.
Although Mr Murphy was brutally beaten, the intervention of PC Helsby and his colleague undoubtedly saved him from a much worse ordeal. Police later found bloody handcuffs, a hammer, pliers, cable ties and a bloody lever in one of the other vehicles involved in the abduction.
Five men were later charged with false imprisonment and intentional injury and were tried in Liverpool in 2018. However, four of the men were acquitted and only 6 feet 4 inches and 22 stone bandit Paul Dwyer was convicted of the attack. The father of one child, Dwyer, then 29, was jailed for 14 years with an additional four-year license.
Deli Mob associate Paul Dwyer, jailed in 2018 for fake imprisonment and brutal beating of a man in Walton
Dwyer and some of the other accused men were associates of Deli Mob. The gang became known about a decade ago by robbing other drug dealers, mainly of stealing cannabis farms in North Liverpool.
As early as 2011, Merseyside police appealed to the court to provide orders for anti-social behavior (ASBOS) against six men, described by the forces as members of Deli Mob, for terrorism in the northern part of the city. An application to the Community Liberty Justice Center at the time said the gang would “break into premises used for cannabis factories, steal goods and everything else, sell drugs and / or consume them themselves.” will use the money to buy vehicles that they used to launder money and deliver drugs and use their presence and violence to hold their territory around County Road.
Of the six men targeting ASBO applications, two were Jonathan Gordon and Paul Dwyer. A couple of famous brothers were also included; Jake and Jamie Glenholms.
Jamie Glenholms was one of the men convicted of kidnapping Mr Murphy, but he soon returned to the jury for another particularly brutal attempt to rob a drug dealer. The thug, then 24, led a gang of masked intruders who raided a property in the Fazakerli area just three months later in January 2017, looking for a man named David Higgins who was on bail pending a conviction for delivery crimes. of drugs at the time. .
Mr. Higgins was not there at first, so the gang gathered his family and waited for his return. Their target eventually arrived and was confronted by Glenholms and his crew, armed with baseball bats and knives, and demanded £ 50,000.
Jamie Glenholms, left, and his brother Jake Glenholms
While Mr. Higgins was trying to convince the intruders that he had no money, one of the gang attacked him with a knife and stabbed him in the face, causing significant injuries and leaving a permanent scar. The terrified victim tried to escape, but was beaten with a baseball bat, while a security lamp in a neighbor’s garden disturbed the gang, causing them to flee.
In the weeks following the incident, Glenholms knew he had been recognized by Mr. Higgins, and sent messages offering him money to end the case. However, a jury at Liverpool’s Royal Courts of Justice concluded that he led the attack and was the man who killed Mr Higgins.
Jake Glenholms, while not charged with felony crimes such as his brother Dwyer or Gordon, has spent much of the past seven years in prison for crimes, including growing a £ 32,000 cannabis farm at home, attempting to raiding a shop and selling heroin.
Most recently, in March 2020, Jake Glenholms admitted that he threatened another prisoner in Walton Prison with a “terrible” makeshift knuckle. As he was convicted in the case, the court was told that Glenholms himself had been attacked and targeted “for his name” and “for who his brother is”.
On Wednesday, Gordon will be the last in the class of Deli Mob in 2011, who will receive a huge sentence, which will probably be significantly longer than that given to Dwyer or Jamie Glenholms.
Photo of the young Jonathan Gordon, published by the Merseyside Police in 2011 (Image: Merseyside Police)
Merseyside police cited the grim future of the gang’s most violent members as a warning to others to stay away from organized crime. Chief Detective Mark Kamin, head of investigations at the Merseyside Police, said: “Our message to young people is that crime is not paid for and is not glamorous or rewarding. Imprisonment sentences like these show how seriously the police, the CPS and the courts take this type of organized crime. So please think again, because organized crime is a ticket to prison.
“Once a vulnerable young person is identified, we work with partner agencies to protect them and engage with them to give them the opportunity to take a different and better path in life. find every crime in your neighborhood.
“It is vital that anyone who cares for or knows young and vulnerable people understands the problem and discovers the warning signs to help them.”
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