Thursday 12 May 2022 12:20 PM 'Dangerous' drugs gang boss, 16, who terrorised the streets of Liverpool is ... trends now
A teenage kingpin whose growing drugs empire led to terror on the streets of Liverpool has been sentenced to over nine years behind bars.
17-year-old Harry O'Brien was just 16 when he took over as leader of a squad of drug dealers behind three shootings and a firebombing in the city's Dingle suburb.
Granted automatic anonymity because of his young age, journalists at the Liverpool Echo won a court challenge to name O'Brien when he was jailed for nine years and three months on April 28.
O'Brien used ruthless tactics to gain control of his turf, which would be shocking from a seasoned crime boss, let alone a teenager.
One attack saw bullets fired from an Audi at a BMW, as the two cars raced side-by-side through the city at night. A stray bullet flew through the front door of an 'entirely innocent' family's home and landed on their hallway stairs.
Another time, a gunman on an electric bike peppered a family's living room with bullets and fired into another victim's bedroom.
Finally, O'Brien had petrol poured through the letterbox of a house and set it ablaze, as a mother and her children ran for their lives.
17-year-old Harry O'Brien led a crime group who brought terror to the streets of Liverpool with three shootings and a firebomb. Police say the streets are safer now that he has been jailed for nine years and eight months
At Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Neil Flewitt QC said he had no doubt they were 'the manifestation of a feud' between O'Brien's gang and 'others' with 'whom they had a real or perceived grievance, the nature of which has not emerged'.
Judge Flewitt said: 'Unhappily, the lives of wholly innocent people, including young children, were put at risk by the callous and cowardly actions of all those involved.'
The court was told O'Brien planned and took part in all three shootings, 'orchestrated the arson', and the cannabis plot was 'his enterprise'.
David Temkin, QC, prosecuting, said Harry O'Brien was 'at the heart of the criminality' while his 'lieutenants' Michael McClean, then 16, and Aaron Donohoe, then 19, were given 'managerial responsibility' over his drug trade.
Daniel Lawler, 19, joined O'Brien as 'trusted' henchman and carried out two of the shootings, which all involved the same Glock semi-automatic gun - never recovered by police.
At the age of just 16, cannabis dealer O'Brien became the boss of a teen crew behind three terrifying shootings and a firebombing
The first shooting took place late on December 29, 2020, after the unknown occupants of a silver BMW X5 driving around Dingle Lane deliberately 'rammed' into another BMW on which was being driven by O'Brien's mother, with O'Brien, McClean, Donohoe and an unknown fourth male in the car as passengers.
O'Brien's mother rang police at 10.30pm to report the crash as her son and his gang fled.
Mr Temkin said: 'What happened next was revenge.'
Armed with a loaded gun, O'Brien, McClean, Donohoe and the fourth male set off in the Audi, with banned driver McClean at the wheel.
Three shots were fired at the BMW on Dingle Lane, with one piercing the front door of a 'shocked' couple and their seven-year-old child's home.
Mr Temkin said: 'They were in the process of going to bed. They heard screeching car tyres and found a bullet on the hallway stairs.'
The QC said evidence given by Lawler at trial revealed O'Brien was in 'some sort of dispute' with 'the Franchetti and Rosario family'.
Aaron Donohoe (left), 20, was a lieutenant of teenage drug boss Harry O'Brien (right),
