Boy, 16, caught with loaded pistol after 'gang' attack on Leeds suburban street
A teenager attacked by a gang on a Leeds street was found to be carrying a loaded gun.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named due to his age, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court.
He continues to maintain he is not a gang member, despite police intelligence suggesting otherwise.
Police had been called to Cowper Street and Hillcrest Avenue in Chapeltown on October 31 last year to reports that a group of youths were attacking a lone boy.
When officers arrived, they found the teenager with a gash to his head and his back, claiming he had been run over by a vehicle.
Put in an ambulance, when they took his coat off rounds of ammunition fell out and were rolling around the ambulance floor.
He was arrested and the area searched where the attack took place. They found a Gucci bag that had been placed under a Fiat Punto.
Inside they found a PAK blank-firing pistol that had been converted to a semi-automatic lethal weapon capable of firing live rounds. There was a bullet in the chamber and a magazine that contained two further rounds.
There was also a small quantity of cannabis. A machete was found nearby but that was not forensically linked to the teenager.
CCTV evidence also showed that he was attacked by the gang and struck with a knife.
The boy admitted possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, possessing ammunition without a certificate and possession of cannabis.
A basis of plea - that he had been asked to pick up the weapon and bullets and deliver them to an older associate - was accepted by the Crown.
He has previous convictions for carrying machetes in public.
Mitigating, Giles Grant said despite being subjected to a “violent and horrific” attack by larger males, he did not produce the gun at any point.
The court also heard that the boy had lost three friends to gang violence in recent years.
Judge Simon Phillips KC gave him 45 months’ detention in a young offender institution.