BRITAIN: Four men were found guilty yesterday of murdering two teenage girls with a spray of bullets at a New Year Party in Birmingham, England, a crime that sparked angry calls for a police crackdown on gangs and guns.
The four - including a half-brother of one of the victims - were convicted at Leicester Crown Court of murdering Charlene Ellis (18) and Letisha Shakespeare (17) in a drive-by shooting outside a hairdressing salon in January 2003.
Both girls were hit four times by sub-machine-gun fire in what the prosecution called a botched gang attack.
The convicted men, all alleged to be members of the "Burger Bar Boys' Gang", were Charlene's half-brother, Marcus Ellis (24), Michael Gregory (23), Nathan Martin (26) and Rodrigo Simms (20).
The four, who will be sentenced on Monday, were also convicted on three counts of attempting to murder Charlene Ellis's twin sister, Sophia, and their friend Cheryl Shaw.
A fifth defendant, Jermaine Carty, was cleared of possessing a firearm on the night of the shooting.
The trial was jeopardised over fears witnesses were being intimidated and would not testify. An array of methods were introduced to protect witnesses.
The killings also mobilised anti-gun and anti-gang campaigners in Birmingham, who called on police to break the cycle of violence, especially among poor, black youths.
"There's peer pressure and boys without direction and we've got to see what the government's going to offer some of these young men on the streets," Arthur Ellis, father of murdered Charlene Ellis, told Sky News.
"We're hoping that at the end of it something good will come of all this," he said.