Young man guilty of shooting woman through front door

A teenager has been found guilty of murdering her mother, who was shot in the head through her front door as she tried to protect her two children from a gang feud.

Lianne Gordon (42) had just returned from a holiday in Jamaica when she was attacked at her home in Hackney, east London, on December 5, 2023, the Old Bailey reported.

She was the unintended victim of a gang feud between neighborhood rivals, jurors heard.

The 17-year-old youth denied being the gunman, but after a trial at the Old Bailey he was found guilty of Ms Gordon’s murder.

The jury, which deliberated for 21 hours, found him guilty of attempting to kill a 17-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man who were shot in the street during the same incident.

The youth was also convicted of robbery, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of a bladed article, but was acquitted of threatening Ms Gordon’s son with a knife.

Co-defendant Elijah Seriki, 21, from Hackney, was acquitted of all charges against him on Wednesday.

At the time of the shooting, the teenage defendant was out on bail for attempted murder related to a separate incident last March.

On the evening of December 5 last year, Mrs Gordon’s 21-year-old son Kaymound was in the shower and her 16-year-old daughter came out of the room when she heard what she thought were fireworks.

Even though the gunman was wearing a balaclava, she would later tell police that she recognized her mother’s killer.

She said: “Mum had her hand on the doorknob and looked like she was trying to lock it. I saw an arrow through the open door. I saw her fall. I went to her.

“As soon as my mom took her last breath and I was still hearing the shots and stuff, I opened the front door and I was screaming at him and he was looking right in my face.

“He had a balaclava or hood on, but I saw enough of his eyes and nose to recognize him. He didn’t say anything. Everything happened in slow motion. We stood face to face for a few seconds, maybe five, before he ran away. We looked into each other’s eyes and knew it was him.

Ms Gordon died at the scene from a single gunshot wound to the head, while two victims outside were treated in hospital.

Magistrates heard the shooting was the culmination of a series of incidents.

Prosecutor Mark Fenhalls KC said the incidents were the result of a dispute between two Hackney gangs: the Pembury Gang, to which the youth was associated; and the A-Road Gang, with which Mr. Gordon was associated.

It was alleged that the defendants threatened Mrs Gordon’s son with a large knife as he smoked a cigarette on his doorstep on October 1 last year, although they denied this.

According to jurors, on December 2, 2023, the youth took part in an escape into rival territory using a machete and a gun, which was fired four times.

Gordon, who uses a wheelchair, has denied being a member of the A-Road Gang, but said the problems began in 2019 when his friend Dotz was murdered.

For years, each side showed disrespect for each other in music and on social media, leading to revenge attacks, jurors were told.

A teenage defendant returned to Hackney despite his family moving away in an attempt to isolate him from the gang, a court heard.

After the fatal shooting, the youth conducted 65 Internet searches for Lianne Gordon on his computer.

Mr Fenhalls told jurors: “The only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the activity on this computer is that (the youth) returned home in the early evening and was looking for information about what had been reported about what he had done.”

In January, rap lyrics referring to the shooting and stating that Kaymound’s mother was a “wig” were found from his cell, the court heard.

The young man had a number of previous convictions dating back to the age of 15.

These included an attempted murder conviction over an incident at Hackney Central station on March 1 last year, the court was told.

Fenhalls said the defendant was involved in planning and passing on information but was not personally involved in the violence.