Barry Burke was a senior member of the feared Croxteth Young Guns – as he appears back in court, the ECHO has taken a closer look at the gang’s history
Croxteth Young Guns under surveillance at Moss Way Shops in 2011
A gang that stepped into the shoes of a notorious predecessor was described as a “separate outlawed tribe” that “rejected all of society’s moral standards”. The Croxteth Young Guns (CYG) were a bunch of violet louts who were successors to the Croxteth Crew, continuing the deadly rivalry with the Norris Green Strand Gang which resulted in one of the most heinous shootings Merseyside has ever seen.
The CYG stepped into the void after gunman Sean Mercer and his associates were rounded up by Merseyside Police in the aftermath of the devastating murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in 2007. But the gang was not flush with dirty money from a sophisticated drug trafficking operation – their only focus appeared on violently attacking their rivals.
One senior judge remarked: “It seems to me they have no stake in society except membership of the gang, which is the only claim upon their loyalty.” The gang also enforced a strict “code of silence” and were not afraid to enforce this through the use of guns and firebombs.
Senior members of the gang included Anthony Jewell, Mark Thomas and Barry Burke, who operated across a patch stretching to the borders of Fazakerley and Kirkby. However, the police managed to target the CYG operation and round up some of its key players.
Since the gang was shut down, names of its former members have intermittently continued to pop up linked to new crime enterprises. Last week, former senior member Burke was linked to an ecstasy drugs factory after his fingerprints were found on commercial use machinery.
Following Burke’s latest appearance in court, the ECHO is looking back at the CYG gang as part of our weekly series examining Merseyside’s criminal history.
The CYG took shape in the late 2000s following the murder of Rhys, who was shot dead as he walked home from football practice. It was hoped his death would be a watershed moment and put an end to the mindless violence between the Croxteth Crew and their main rivals, the Norris Green based Strand Crew who had been 16-year-old Mercer’s intended targets.
Six members of the Croxteth crew who have been found guilty of drugs, firearms and arson charges
However after Mercer and many of his associates were swept up by police, the CYG formed and stepped into the void. The CYG seemed to have one overriding goal – to continue the violent feud with the Strand that had boiled over in 2007. The violence added to miserable firearms statistics in Merseyside.
According to a community impact statement provided by police, between October 2010 and March 2013, there were 266 firearms discharges in Liverpool; and 319 offences of arson with intent to endanger life. By the end of 2011, Merseyside Police were intent on bringing the violence to an end.
A major operation began to piece together incidents linked to the group, and the main players were arrested. Jewell and fellow “soldiers” Thomas, Burke, Ryan Holden, Sam Hughes and Kyle Smith Milson were rounded up and charged with a raft of offences on an indictment that covered six shootings, two further incidents when guns failed to fire and at least four firebomb attacks. They went to trial in 2013.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Peter Openshaw, said his impression of the young but extraordinarily violent criminals was that their drug-dealing was just a side-show to fund their “principle activity” of “feuding” with rivals.
Surveillance footage of CYG gang member Mark Thomas on the streets of Croxteth
Judge Openshaw said as he passed sentence: “It seems to me, they have no stake in society except membership of the gang, which is the only claim upon their loyalty. None of them has ever done a day’s honest work in their lives, or seemingly has ever aspired to do so.
“Their families are largely dysfunctional. Each left school without any qualifications or skills. Their days are spent posturing outside the shops on Moss Way in Croxteth, dealing drugs, and proclaiming their claim to that territory then going back to their base on Stonedale Crescent, to deal more drugs, and to smoke cannabis with each other.
“It is as if they belonged to some separate outlawed tribe, which has rejected all of society’s moral standards and conventions.” He described them enforcing a strict “code of silence” which they “ruthlessly enforced by the use of guns and firebombs, often brought to the scene by unregistered scrambler bikes”.
Among the offences the CYG were convicted of orchestrating was the “punishment knee-capping” of former member Josh Keating in Maureen Walk, on March 13, 2011. Mr Keating was shot by bullets from a gun linked to the defendants and which was also used to shoot at members of the Strand Gang.
On one occasion shots were fired at Strand members in the street, leading to bullets crashing into the homes of innocent residents, before a shotgun was fired at through the window of a house where McMullen’s parents lived, narrowly missing his mum.
Two other incidents involved bungled execution attempts on men who had decided to leave the CYG. On both occasions, they had guns held to their heads by men who pulled the trigger, but were spared when the weapons malfunctioned and failed to fire.
A gun recovered by Merseyside police during the Croxteth Crew operation
A jury also heard how the gang targeted the homes of rivals using Lucozade bottles filled with accelerant and a lighted rag, often prompted by as little as a “perceived slight” to Jewell. One attack, in Alma Road at 2am on November 4, 2011, took place on the home of an innocent woman and her baby girl who were simply renting a house linked to a rival.
She was forced to smash a bedroom window and escape via a sloping roof, before passing her baby down to neighbours. Judge Openshaw said “the occupants were extraordinarily lucky to get out alive”.
Members of the CYG were also on the receiving end of violence including Jewell, who had his jaw broken whilst on remand at Walton prison. Burke meanwhile had to jump from an upstairs window after intruders burst into his Stonedale Crescent house. A shotgun was also blasted at one of his relative’s houses.
Following a trial, Jewell was sentenced to 20 years, plus five years on licence for a string of drug and firearm conspiracies. Thomas was detained for 16 years with four years extended on licence; Holden was sentenced to 13 years with three years extended on licence; Smith Milson was detained for 12 years with three years extend on licence; Hughes received 12 years with three years extended on licence and Burke was detained for 12 years with four years extended on licence.
Barry Burke returned to prison soon after his release(Image: Merseyside Police)
Appearing back before Liverpool Crown Court last week, Burke was sentenced for his role in a drugs operation based out of an industrial unit on Cleveland Street in Birkenhead. When police raided the premises on January 13 and found a “large scale operation” with an industrial press ordinarily used by companies in the pharmaceuticals industry.
Experts subsequently estimated that the 3kg of MDMA powder seized from the unit would be capable of producing 23,400 ecstasy tablets with the use of such equipment, class A drugs worth up to £234,000.
Burke’s counsel during his most recent court appearance said: “For his age, he has already spent far too long in prison. He knows more than anyone that he is simply going to have to change. He tells me that he is committed to doing so. He does not want any more court appearances. He is still relatively young.”
Burke, now 31 and most recently of Sandpiper Close in Bolton, was sentenced to 37 months after he pleaded guilty to participating in the activities of an organised crime group. He was joined in the dock by Ihtiandr Maciulevicius, who was said to be living at the premises while “getting his hands dirty”. He was sentenced to six years in prison while a third defendant Farris Thomas will be sentenced at a later date.