Teenager faces lengthy jail sentence over shotgun 'revenge' attack

A teenager faces a lengthy prison sentence after he admitted blasting a boy with a shotgun at ‘short range’ during a ‘revenge’ attack.

Ethan Deas, 18, shot the 17-year-old in broad daylight in Stretford. The shooting came 18 months after the murder of 16-year-old Kennie Carter.

Kennie was killed in Stretford in January 2022. A 16-year-old boy was later convicted of his murder and jailed for at least 17 years.

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Prosecutors told Manchester Crown Court that the shooting, in August last year, was an ‘act of revenge’, which was ‘premeditated' and 'pre-planned’. The victim had been present with the ‘group that was responsible for killing Kennie' in January 2022.

He went on trial alongside the 16-year-old and eight other young men accused of murder and manslaughter, in relation to Kennie’s death. The 17-year-old who was shot was found not guilty on both charges, during the same trial in which the 16-year-old was convicted of murder.

The subsequent trial of Deas and seven other men ended today (Friday, November 15) after all defendants entered guilty pleas which were deemed acceptable by prosecutors. They will be sentenced next month. The change of plea came during the second week of the trial, in which the prosecution case was ongoing.

Deas pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. Six other young men, who were present at the time of the shooting, admitted violent disorder.

Richard Williams, Mr Deas’s father, admitted assisting an offender after removing the gun and ‘making arrangements’ for his son after the incident. The boy was shot on August 10 last year.

He was seen in Stretford at about 4.30pm with a number of other men on bikes. Mr Deas and Boy A, one of the defendants in the trial who cannot be named for legal reasons, walked into the street before Boy A was seen on footage chasing another man.

Shortly after, the ‘loud bang’ of a firearm being discharged could be heard on footage. The group around the boy fled while the seven defendants also ran.

The victim was rushed to hospital and was found to have shotgun pellets in his lung, kidney and abdomen. He spent a week in hospital before being discharged. Within ‘five minutes of the shooting’, Mr Deas’ father had tried to call his son.

“Richard Williams knew how much trouble his son was in,” prosecutor Jaime Hamilton KC told the jury in his opening speech. Williams then texted his son to say: “Ring me now what have you done.”

Prosecutors claimed Mr Williams was ‘almost instantly making arrangements for Ethan to leave the area’. Deas told Boy A in a message: “My DNA on the ting....if u dont get rid of that I’m done fam.” Prosecutors said that ‘ting’ was slang for a gun.

Williams made ‘arrangements to collect the gun’. The following day, he booked an apartment at Adelphi Wharf in Salford, where he and his son later checked in.

On August 12, Williams was ‘discussing the prospect that Ethan might have got away with it’, Mr Hamilton said. But police arrested Deas at the apartment later that day.

“Richard Williams realises that neither Ethan nor him are going to get away with this,” Mr Hamilton said. Williams was arrested at a later date.

Sentencing is due to take place on December 19. Mr Deas, of Tipton Drive, Wythenshawe, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. Jayden McKenzie, 19, of Kendal Road, Stretford; Decarrius Metz-Lawrence, 18, of Chatsworth Road, Stretford, and four teenage boys, two aged 16 and two aged 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons and are being identified as Boy A, Boy B, Boy C and Boy D, all pleaded guilty to violent disorder.

Mr Williams, 37, of Jackson Street, Stretford, pleaded guilty to two counts of assisting an offender. Boy A pleaded guilty to one count of assisting an offender.