Kevin and Jack Gibney were convicted of attempted murder after ‘ambushing’ and shooting at victim Ryan Coburn
17:00, 10 Aug 2025Updated 18:05, 10 Aug 2025
Jack Gibney and Kevin Gibney(Image: Cumbria Police/Merseyside Police)
Two brothers went from county lines drug trafficking and an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) which banned one of them from Goodison Park to hatching a plot to kill a “family friend”. Kevin and Jack Gibney “ambushed” and shot at Ryan Coburn in the street after “lying in wait for their target”.
This saw the former pretend to sweep the road while dressed in hi-vis clothing as his younger sibling lurked nearby with a loaded firearm. But, after the fake street cleaner whacked their victim with his broomstick, the gunman missed with all three of the bullets he unleashed.
Both Jack and Kevin Gibney were found guilty of attempted murder in relation to the shooting this week following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court. It marks the latest, but by far the most serious, in a long line of brushes with the law for the brothers, with their criminal records now stretching back nearly two decades.
Kevin Gibney, the elder of the two, was the first to come to notoriety when, in 2007, the ECHO reported that the then 16-year-old had been banned from the area around Everton FC’s Goodison Park, having been one of two “main ringleaders of a group of yobs” who had plagued the area with anti-social behaviour. It came after he was arrested 16 times in the vicinity of the historic stadium, resulting in convictions for burglary, theft, vehicle crime and possession of drugs.
The teenage lout was also said to have been seen speeding around the neighbourhood on scrambler bikes and congregating amongst “a large group of youths with a threatening dog”. He was banned from the area around Goodison Road and City Road for two years as part of an anti-social behaviour order.
Kevin Gibney pictured in 2007(Image: Merseyside Police)
Five years later, Merseyside Police then appealed for information over his whereabouts after he was suspected to have been involved in a robbery at a bar in Walton. This incident, on February 11 2012, saw cash stolen from a man after he was assaulted.
Then, in April 2016, Gibney was jailed after couriering heroin and cocaine from Merseyside to Cumbria. It came after the by now 24-year-old was stopped by officers in Barrow in a “luxury Mercedes” in Barrow while in possession of £900 of drugs.
Investigations revealed that he had made several similar trips north over the previous weeks, often remaining in the area for only a matter of hours. This led to him being labelled a “foot soldier for a gang based in Liverpool”, a role which saw him locked up for four years and four months at Preston Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to possession of class A drugs with intent to supply.
Kevin Gibney pictured in 2016(Image: Cumbria Police)
In August 2019, Jack Gibney also became the subject of a wanted appeal by police. This came after a warrant was issued for the his arrest, the then 19-year-old having been linked to an apparent attempt to smuggle drugs into HMP Liverpool using a drone.
A jury of four men and eight women then heard during the prosecution’s opening last week that the Gibneys and a third man, Callum Smith, “lay in wait” for Mr Coburn on Delamore Street in Walton at around 2pm on February 21 2023, with Kevin Gibney “pretending to be a street sweeper” by carrying a broom while dressed in hi-vis clothing and a balaclava and with an FC Barcelona cap on his head. Jack Gibney was meanwhile said to have been stationed in a nearby alleyway in possession of a loaded firearm.
The 25-year-old, of Lind Street, was earlier captured on camera in a shop on nearby Roxborough Street on the morning of the shooting wearing trousers and trainers matching those worn by the gunman. Both he and Smith meanwhile stopped using their phones around 40 minutes prior to the shooting, with Kevin Gibney thereafter seen on CCTV “peering” around a wall and making “very token efforts” at sweeping the street in the moments beforehand.
Alex Langhorn, prosecuting, told the court that, as Mr Coburn and his friend David Gleeson then neared him on foot, the 34-year-old, of Utting Avenue East in Norris Green, “swung around” and struck the former with the brush, “shattering it into pieces”. Jack Gibney then walked into the middle of the road and adopted a “shooter’s stance” before firing three gunshots in his direction.
Jack Gibney pictured in 2019(Image: Merseyside Police)
A series of loud bangs were heard as jurors were played CCTV footage of the incident, with Mr Langhorn saying of the clip: “Three shots. Not once, not twice, but three times, Jack Gibney fired that gun.
“We will never know why they did not hit Ryan Coburn, whether because Jack Gibney froze in the moment, scared of what he was doing, or that he just wasn’t a particularly good shot, or that he ran out of ammunition. What the crown say is, when you lie in wait with a firearm loaded with live ammunition and you discharge it three times, you can only intend one thing. You can only intend to kill.”
But Mr Coburn was described as being “made of rather sterner stuff” having “given chase, apparently unafraid of the firearm”. Kevin Gibney was alleged to have hurled a brick in his direction as the three assailants ran away down the alleyway with “their ambush having failed”.
Mr Langhorn continued: “The prosecution say that the three men together had planned this ambush, intending to kill Mr Coburn. Why else arm themselves with a firearm? Why else lie in wait? Why else fire not once, not twice, but three times? The only reason this is an attempted murder is because, in the moment, Jack Gibney failed to hit his target.”
With the “plan having failed”, Kevin Gibney was captured riding away along County Road on an e-bike, said to have been identical to one he was seen using on Roxborough Street earlier the same day, before dropping his cap on Wilburn Street. He then “got rid of” his hi-vis clothing before cycling towards his mum’s home address.
Jack Gibney and Smith meanwhile leapt over a fence from the alleyway back onto Carisbrooke Road in the aftermath before fleeing. The former was also seen “wearing a Barcelona cap” on Chepstow Street, “followed shortly thereafter” by his 18-year-old companion.
Following Jack Gibney’s arrest on Lark Lane on March 13, police seized the trainers he had been wearing on the day in question and the electric bike ridden by his brother In his evidence, he told the court that he was alone at his girlfriend’s home on Carisbrooke Road on the day in question.
Asked when he first became aware of the shooting, he said: “As Callum knocked on my back window and I’ve come and answered. He’s knocked on the window in a state and told me that he thinks my brother’s been possibly shot, and could he come in. I’ve said he’s not allowed to come in. He looked scared. He didn’t look normal. He looked scared and out of breath.
“He said, ‘I think your brother, I think he’s been shot’. He didn’t 100 per cent know, but he assumed he’d been shot. He asked if he could come inside. I told him he wasn’t allowed to come in, as it’s not my say so. My first instinct was to go to my mother’s house to see if my brother was there. He lived there at the time.”
Fingertip searches on Delamore Street in Walton
Gibney earlier documented how he would routinely enter and exit his girlfriend’s home via the back door, a practice which involved him jumping over a fence in the rear alleyway, as he “wasn’t meant to be present” due to social services involvement with his partner’s children. But the crown alleged that dashcam footage from a waiting taxi of him doing so around five minutes after the shooting captured his escape from the scene.
Kevin Gibney was later detained on March 27 at an address on Whitehall Close in Kirkdale, at which stage he denied being the male in hi-vis under interview and told detectives that they “couldn’t see the face of the man” in the footage. It was heard during the trial that he had been detained under the Mental Health Act five days prior to the shooting after climbing onto the roof of a terraced house on Nimrod Street in Walton.
This incident, at around 4pm on February 16, 2023, saw him described as “behaving erratically and unpredictably”. He was also said to have been “smoking a crack pipe” at this time and went on to tell officers that he was “being watched by people in vans”.
Police put up a cordon on Nimrod Street(Image: ECHO reader)
From the witness box, Gibney accepted being the person shown on CCTV after being forensically linked to the items of clothing. However, he stated that he was dressed in work gear as he wanted to be hired by residents for odd jobs in order to make money for drugs.
Gibney went on to state that he had panicked at the sight of the gunman and swung the brush at Mr Coburn as he mistakenly believed that he was part of a group of men who were trying to attack him. Under cross-examination, he said: “They’ve gone straight for Callum. Callum has shut the entry gate on them. He runs down the entry and gets off leaves me at the scene, gate shut.
“I didn’t know they were behind me. I went to make a run for it. You can see how close they are to me. I lashed out with the brush. If Ryan didn’t hit me back, I would have run. I just acted in impulse and swung the brush and tried to make an exit.
“It was an instinct. I couldn’t really control that. I thought I was in danger. It looks like he runs at me, to be honest. I know there’s no reason for me and Ryan to have done that to each other.
“I love Ryan Coburn. I wish Ryan Coburn was here today so he could tell you the truth. I had an episode of hitting him with a brush by mistake. We’ve had a miscommunication.
“What reason would I have to do that to Ryan? He’s a family friend. He’s like a second cousin. I’ve played footie with him. We play darts together. He’s a childhood friend of mine. If he was here today, he’d tell you straight.”
Delamore Street in Walton
Smith was held in connection with the investigation when a search warrant was executed at an address on Bordehill Gardens in West Derby on March 28. While the teenager was not present in the dock during the trial, Judge Stuart Driver KC issued jurors with a “stern warning not to speculate” over his absence.
Mr Langhorn added in his opening: “What we say is, once you have heard all of the evidence in this case, you will be sure that these that two men were lying in wait on Delamore Street on the 21st of February 2023, Kevin Gibney peering round from one side of the road, Callum Smith the other, Jack Gibney waiting with the firearm just off shot. When Ryan Coburn arrived, they attempted to kill him.
“They were lying in wait, you can be sure, armed with a lethal firearm. They intended not only to endanger Mr Coburn’s life, but to kill him. Why else fire not once, not twice, but three times? The fact that they failed to kill Mr Coburn was not for the want of trying.”
Jack and Kevin Gibney were unanimously found guilty of attempted murder and a further count of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life on Tuesday. One woman was seen in tears in the public gallery as jurors returned their verdicts.
The brothers will now be sentenced back before the same court in September. They were remanded into custody until this date by Judge Driver.