Two gang members who chased and killed a 50-year-old father, who was attacked with machetes and left to die on a busy street, have been jailed for life.
Footage played to the gang’s trial, and later released by police with the approval of the victim’s family, showed Mr Ward being attacked after his 19-year-old son’s car was rammed near a roundabout on Chester Road.Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, sitting at Coventry Crown Court, sentenced a fourth defendant, Rusharn Williams-Reid to 13-and-a-half years’ detention for conspiracy to murder Mr Ward’s son, who managed to flee the murder scene.
Although Mr Ward’s son is thought to have been the original intended victim, the judge added: “This was a planned attack. The defendants were not randomly driving around. They were prepared to use lethal violence.” Williams-Reid, of Orchard Meadow Walk, Birmingham, was cleared of unlawfully killing Mr Ward, while Coates, of Sydney Way, Birmingham, was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter on the grounds that he did not intend death or serious harm.Their trial was told that Mr Ward’s son’s Vauxhall Corsa was initially rammed by a Ford Kuga at a KFC branch and then forced to a halt less than a mile away.
He was chased by Hollywood, along with Williams and Williams-Reid, but managed to escape the immediate area. In the run-up to the murder, the court heard, Mr Ward’s family home, where his son also lived, had been subject to a number of attacks during the night, including cars being set on fire.
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