Bullet remains in leg of 12-year-old victim after Sheffield ‘drive-by’ shooting

An orthopaedic surgeon who treated the boy, after the shooting on January 12, said the bullet went through his upper thigh and lodged in his leg and to remove it would cause complications.

The boy was talking to friends, outside a sandwich shop on Northern Avenue, Arbourthorne, and they were waiting to go to a trampoline park in Meadowhall.

Summing up after the month-long trial of Stephen Dunford for attempted murder, the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, read from the boy's description of how a white Ford ST drove past them.

"Stephen Dunford had a handgun and a person in the back had a long-barrelled shotgun," he told officers.

"He leant over the driver and started letting it off loads. We tried to dodge them. He started shooting everyone and the long-barrelled shotgun got let off once."

When he was hit, the boy threw down his bike and ran home, where his father called 999 and tried to staunch the bleeding.

The boy's mother described how he was "going in and out of consciousness" as he shouted out that Dunford, who he knew as "Swee", had done it.

But the judge warned the jury that the boy's evidence might be "emotionally supercharged" and that it wasn't "terribly satisfactory" and they would have to "consider whether it is supported by other evidence."

You can read the Star’s coverage of the case so far, including a rap performed by Dunford, in which it is alleged he confessed to the shooting, as well as witnesses' evidence of the shooting and the immediate aftermath.

Dunford, aged 25, of Fellbrigg Road, Arbourthorne, denies attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The jury found Devon Gregory, 23, of Heeley Green, Heeley, Sheffield, not guilty of attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, on September 9.

It is expected that the jury will retire to consider their verdict sometime today.

Read the latest cases from Sheffield Crown Court here.

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