Overview
- A jury convicted Dwayne Bates and Kieron Robinson in March and a judge sentenced them on Thursday, June 4 to prison terms after finding they possessed a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
- Prosecutors told Teesside Crown Court the pair were hired to enforce an alleged £20,000 drugs debt and one of two guns fired through a living-room window while the mother stood nearby and her children slept upstairs.
- Court evidence said one shotgun jammed, the other discharged and lodged a bullet in the wall behind the mother, and the suspects later set a garden fire to burn clothes used during the attack.
- The judge imposed an extended 10-year term for Bates, comprising seven years and four months in custody plus two years and eight months on licence, and jailed Robinson for six years and ten months after a probation report warned Bates was likely to reoffend.
- Police and the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team welcomed the convictions but said the failure to recover the weapons and the unidentified third man leave investigative gaps and ongoing risks to the community while the victim continues to suffer long-term trauma.