Following their conviction after a trial in January and February 2023 at the Central Criminal Court, three defendants yesterday received sentences of 15-17 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of Kaan Cicek in November 2017. Mr Cicek was shot at several times with a 32 Automatic calibre ‘Skorpion’ submachine gun and was struck in the leg. 

On 20 November 2017, CCTV showed two masked figures running into a kebab shop on Wood Street just before 10:30pm and shooting at Mr Cicek at point-blank range with members of the public present. The defendants were subsequently driven away at speed to a nearby location where the vehicle used was set alight. Witnesses observed males in dark clothing running from the burning car to a second vehicle, which later drove to the home address of one of the defendants. 

The defendants were identified following an exhaustive police investigation that relied on a combination of CCTV, numberplate tracking, gunshot residue analysis and forensic traces left on clothing recovered from the boot of the car.