Mexborough murder: Drive-by shooting highlights how community is being “terrorised” by gangs

Sheffield Crown Court heard how driver Jack Parkes, gunman Taylor Meanley, and passengers Joe Anderton and Arlind Nika were in a Jaguar car on Wath Road, Mexborough, on January 11, with a shotgun when Lewis Williams was shot in the head and neck and died.

Stephen Wood QC, prosecuting, told the sentencing hearing on October 29 they had been looking for 20-year-old Lewis Williams, of Rotherham, because he was a member of a rival gang in Doncaster and Mexborough.

Mr Woods added Meanley received an Instagram message after the shooting which stated “Heard one of the Hudz rinsed one of the PSB boys”, followed by an emoji of a smiley face crying with laughter.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, who described Lewis Williams’s death as a “gangland execution” said a community is being “terrorised” by gangs with guns and the sooner they are put out of existence the better it will be for society.

He said: “There is a vast amount of social deprivation and social degradation. This feeds into gangs which is having a very bad effect on the local community.”

Judge Richardson added Chief Superintendent Melanie Palin has stated these gangs are involving themselves, almost certainly, in drug-related violence.

He added: “It’s a significant local problem in that area and it’s having a detrimental effect on the local community, particularly gun crime is having an effect on the local community.”

Judge Richardson said deprived youths are becoming attracted to gangs.

Mr Wood said the mothers of Meanley and Parkes had been subjected to attacks which drove the defendents to seek revenge on the gang they held responsible.

Barrister Adam Kane, representing Tayloy Meanley, said South Yorkshire Police and Doncaster Council knew Meanley’s mother had been subject to an escalating campaign of violence by an organised crime gang called the Pitsmoor Shotta Boys.

Mr Kane added Meanley’s mother had her windows smashed, her car torched and she was in her hallway when her front door was smashed by someone firing a shotgun.

He said Taylor Meanley had been placed on an “at risk register” by the authorities because it was suspected he was being targeted by gangs.

Judge Richardson told a packed public gallery with some wearing ‘Justice for Lewis’ T-shirts: “It must be made very clear that those who indulge in this form of exceptionally serious violence must expect, and will receive, very substantial sentences of imprisonment when they are convicted of crimes.”

A trial jury found Meanley, who fired the shotgun, and driver Parkes both guilty of murder and they also found Nika and Anderton guilty of manslaughter.

Meanley, 17, of Beech Crescent, Mexborough; Parkes, 21, of Arnold Crescent, Mexborough; Nika, 16, of Spelman Street, London, and Anderton, 18, of Jubilee Road, Wheatley, Doncaster, were also found guilty of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Judge Richardson imposed life custodial sentences for Meanley and Parkes and they must both serve a minimum term of 27 years, and Anderton and Nika were each sentenced to 12 years of detention.