Arbourthorne Sheffield drive-by shootings: Mum grabbed daughter and ducked down during gun attack

Sheffield Crown Court has heard during a trial how Joshua Mottershead, Niki Haycock and Demi Dunford are accused of conspiring to murder Ryan Ducker after two drive-by shootings were reported at properties on Errington Avenue and Aylward Road, near Arbourthorne, Sheffield, on June 30, 2020.

Stephen Wood QC, prosecuting, said the stepfather of Ryan Ducker’s partner had been at home on Errington Avenue at around 9.30pm when four shots were fired into his living room as his wife and son were elsewhere in the property.

Mr Wood said about 20 minutes later a woman from Aylward Road had been with relatives in her home when six shots were fired through her living room window.

She told the jury on November 29 that she had been in the kitchen with her partner’s friend, Ryan Ducker, and her daughter while her nephew was nearby, as her sister and her baby daughter were in the living room.

She said: “I grabbed hold of my daughter as soon as I heard the bangs and went to the kitchen floor. Ryan did the same.”

She added: “All my neighbours were shouting ‘are you all right?’. They came across the road and got me out and took me over the road to my neighbour’s house.”

She said her sister’s baby was near the living room window in a pram during the shooting.

Her sister said she had been with her three-year-old son and her 10-month-old baby daughter when the shots were fired and glass was later found in her daughter’s hair.

She added: “When I realised I jumped over the L-shaped part of the settee in front of the window to move my pram into the hallway.”

She said Ryan Ducker had been with friends in the kitchen and they had all gone by the time she got her children upstairs.

The women confirmed they had initially not told police Ryan Ducker had been at the house because they had been concerned about the situation.

Dunford, 25, of Derby Street, Sheffield; Mottershead, 22, of St Aiden’s Avenue, Sheffield; and Haycock, 23, of Ironside Close, Sheffield, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit murder and not guilty to conspiring to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Dunford and Haycock have also pleaded not guilty to conspiring to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear or violence but Mottershead has admitted possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear or violence.

Mottershead accepts he was the car passenger who discharged a gun but claims his motivation was only to cause fear, according to Mr Wood.

Mr Wood claimed Dunford had been communicating by phone with Mottershead after the shootings and she met a man called Jason Brough before the Vauxhall Astra allegedly used in the shootings was set alight.

Brough, 51, of Kent Road, Sheffield, has pleaded guilty to arson and Dunford has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice in relation to her involvement with the torched car.

The trial continues.