Hojol Uddin and Evan Wright represented and secured the acquittal of an individual alleged to have been involved in a machete attack upon another. David Whittaker QC and Harry Bentley of 2 Hare Court were instructed to represent the defendant at trial.

The defendant appeared before Manchester Crown Court this year for what is likely to be the last Operation Leopard prosecution. Operation Leopard was the Greater Manchester Police investigation into a number of attacks deemed to form part of what was described by the prosecution as “Salford gang warfare.” Other incidents forming part of Operation Leopard included the shooting of Paul Massey, a grenade attack upon a family home, and the shooting of the wife and child of an individual said to be associated with one of the “gang leaders”.

The most recent trial focussed upon the shooting of one individual and a machete attack upon another, both of whom were alleged to have been associated with a gang known locally as ‘the A team’. The allegation against the defendant was that he was involved in the placing of the GPS tracker on the victim’s car, which enabled the other conspirators to locate him prior to the attack. Furthermore, the defendant was alleged to have been present when the tracker was monitored, and to have attended at the scene of the attack on the evening of the incident in order to remove it from the car and avoid police detection.

Following a thorough and detailed analysis of the CCTV and telephone evidence, the defence were able to effectively place calls and events relied upon by the prosecution into their proper context. The jury returned unanimous not guilty verdicts in respect of the allegation of conspiring to murder and conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm in the alternative.