Drug dealer shot in foot outside Sheffield pub

Sheffield Crown Court heard Bradley Murphy was shot in the foot outside the Timber Top public house on Shirecliffe Road on September 1 last year after he and his brother Connor had been involved in an altercation with three other men.

David Brooke, prosecuting, said CCTV from outside the pub then appeared to show Connor trying to stab another man.

Mr Brooke said police had pieced together what had happened using CCTV footage after none of the people involved in the dispute came forward.

He said CCTV showed the altercation, with another man and Bradley Murphy going out of shot before Murphy ‘returned hopping’ after being shot in the foot with shotgun pellets.

James Horne, representing Connor Murphy, said his client’s attempt to stab another man was ‘unacceptable and unlawful set in what was a fairly emotional context that night, witnessing his own brother being abused and seeing his twin had been shot’.

Details were revealed as the Murphy brothers, both aged 24 and of Shirecliffe Road, appeared in court in connection with a series of drug and firearm offences involving a further 10 defendants.

Mr Brooke said the Murphy brothers had ‘become involved’ with a man named Joe Mitchell, who a court was told last week was the head of a criminal gang based in Parson Cross and Southey Green.

After Mitchell was arrested last year, he made a series of phone calls, some of which were to Connor Murphy.

Mr Brooke said: “Mitchell revealed he was dealing with substantial quantities of drugs and possession of weapons was part and parcel of that operation.”

In November, police recovered a 9mm handgun hidden in a wall at the back of Penrith Road in Shirecliffe inside a JD sports bag that had Connor Murphy’s fingerprints on it. Connor Murphy has also admitted being involved in the supply of cannabis, while Bradley Murphy has admitted dealing heroin.

Police also found 11 packages of crack cocaine with Bradley Murphy’s fingerprints on at a house on Shirecliffe Road but he has not been charged in connection with this.

Mr Horne, representing Connor Murphy, said his client’s involvement in cannabis had started from ‘heavy personal use’ of the drug from a young age and his dealing was a ‘one-man operation’.

Matthew Stanbury, representing Bradley Murphy, said he had been in touch with Mitchell ‘to keep him sweet or to seek his permission to continue his own operation’.

He said his client had a ‘modest lifestyle’ and was a street dealer selling directly to heroin users.

Mr Stanbury said his client had now left the Sheffield area due to fears for his safety and expects to face a ‘difficult time in prison’.

He said there would be a ‘real risk to his personal safety and perhaps his life’ if he was put on the same wing as other defendants involved in this case.

The pair were remanded in custody and will be sentenced next week, along with 10 other defendants including Mitchell.

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