Gangsters jailed for nearly 40 years over cannabis farm torture

Shawn O’Malley, Billy McColl and David Scurfield – from Orford, Latchford and Burtonwood respectively – were locked up for a combined total of 37 years over the brutal attack today, Friday.

The victims were threatened at gunpoint, tied up and attacked with weapons including an axe and hammers during the sickening attack.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that victims Darren Hall and Joshua Childs were recruited by Scurfield to work in the cultivation and harvesting of cannabis on behalf of an organised crime group.

In the weeks leading up to the incident, a crop had been stolen from the farm on at least one occasion.

On the evening of Friday, September 11 2020, all three men and several others had been working at the industrial unit – which was located down a long country road off Arch Lane in Garswood – and locked away a stash of drugs in a shipping container before leaving and going to the pub.

The trio and two other men returned to the site the following Monday, September 14 2019, to discover that this cannabis had been stolen.

Scurfield made a phone call to an unidentified recipient, whom Mr Childs overheard saying ‘you owe us 30 grand now’.

O’Malley was then brought to the scene for the ‘purpose of threatening and using extreme force’ in a bid to make the pair confess to being involved in the theft.

He pointed a gun at the duo and threatened to shoot them and members of their families if they did not talk before they were tied up with duct tape and brutally beaten.

The pair were struck with a range of weapons including a sledgehammer, a clawhammer and a metal wrench.

At one stage, Mr Hall was told to hold one of his fingers out so that it could be severed with a pair of shears and threatened with a power drill.

Scurfield and O’Malley then left before returning with McColl, who was carrying a container of liquid which he claimed was acid.

The then teenager told the victims that he would use the substance to ‘inflict serious burns on their bodies’, while Mr Hall was told it would be poured onto his genitals and thrown into his face.

Mr Hall was hit in the kneecaps with a hammer and struck in the leg with a pickaxe before the liquid – which is believed to have been either petrol or acid – was poured over the pair.

McColl stubbed out a cigarette in an open wound Mr Childs had suffered, while Scurfield and O’Malley took Mr Hall’s house keys and ransacked the address.

After the defendants left the unit, the other two cannabis farm workers – who had been ordered to wait outside the building – then bundled the injured men into a van and dropped them near to Mr Hall’s home on Crab Street in St Helens and called an ambulance.

Arch Lane in Garswood - picture by Google Maps

Overall, their ordeal lasted several hours and they were left fearing that they were going to die.

Both required surgery for their injuries – Mr Hall having sustained a broken left leg and a broken right forearm, and Mr Childs suffering a fracture left leg – and remained in hospital for several days.

On Thursday, October 1 2020, police raided McColl’s home on Henshall Avenue.

Officers saw him throw an object out of a rear upstairs bedroom window, which was later found to be a converted Olympus firearm.

The gun seized by police

O’Malley also fell to be sentenced for his part in a shooting carried out on behalf of Leon Cullen, formerly Warrington’s most wanted man, over a row with another organised crime group.

Leon Cullen

On the evening of Monday, September 9 2019, he and co-conspirators Lewis Sinclair and Andrew Johannessen met up at an address on Cumberland Street in Latchford – the home of O’Malley’s partner Annie Webster – before travelling to Johannessen’s home in St Helens then onwards to Hilden Street in Bolton in a stolen Mercedes.

Both O’Malley and Sinclair got out of the car dressed in all black with their faces covered before the latter stopped at the gate of a house and fired six shots at the windows and doors.

The scene of the shooting

Johannessen then drove the pair towards Leigh, before changing vehicles to a BMW and continuing back to St Helens.

He had previously carried out reconnaissance missions on the targeted address, but was tracked by an electronic tag he was wearing as he did so.

Afterwards, the loaded gun used in the attack – a Czech 9mm parabellum self-loading pistol – and a quantity of low purity cocaine were planted in rival Craig Millington’s car during a meeting at the Poplars pub in a bid to frame him, he and Cullen having been in a dispute over a woman both were previously involved with.

An anonymous tipoff was then made to the authorities, leading to him being arrested by armed officers.

Sinclair and Johannessen had earlier plotted together to break into lockers at David Lloyd gyms across the country and stealing items including car keys.

Andrew Johannessen and Lewis Sinclair

O’Malley, of Withers Avenue, admitted two counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, two counts of false imprisonment, possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and was jailed for 18 years.

The 33-year-old, who has eight previous convictions for 11 offences, was also handed an extended licence period of five years.

He was previously locked up alongside Cullen in 2012 for six years, having helped to organise his cocaine supply network, before being caged again in 2017 for two years for further drug dealing offences.

Twenty-year-old McColl, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to two counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, two charges of false imprisonment and possession of a firearm and was handed 10 years.

Appearing via video link, 33-year-old Scurfield – of Sherwood Crescent – admitted two counts of false imprisonment and two of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and was imprisoned for nine years.

The ‘cannabis farm manager’ has 11 previous convictions for 20 offences, including 18 months in prison for possession of a class A drug with intent to supply in 2006 and five months behind bars in 2009 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Each will serve up to two thirds of these terms in custody before being released on licence.

Sentencing, judge David Swinnerton said: “The facts of these offences reveal you were all involved in serious organised crime.

“It’s clear that the belief was that Mr Childs and Mr Hall were involved in the loss of the cannabis and Shawn O’Malley was sent in as an enforcer.

“That was his role – to find out where the cannabis was and to frighten, terrorise, torture and assault the victims.

“While helpless and vulnerable, they were systematically beaten.

“Threats were made to Mr Hall to drill holes in his body with a power drill.

“The level of threat made was absolutely terrifying, and both of them spent several hours believing that they were going to die.

“You, Mr McColl, were left in sole charge of them and you spent that hour continuing with the threats – you stubbed out a lit cigarette in an open wound of Joshua Childs.

“That was unnecessary and sadistic torture.

“I’ve not doubt that both men will have been psychologically harmed by the ordeal they went through.”

Turning to O’Malley’s involvement in the shooting plot, the judge added: “You don’t need me to tell you what the dangers are of firing live ammunition in the street towards a house which was occupied.

“It was about trying to put the frighteners on the people in that house as an enforcer in organised crime.

“There was a deliberate attempt to frame a man for very serious offending.”

Gunman Sinclair, from Partington, and getaway driver Johannessen – aged 39 and 38 respectively – were previously jailed for 12 years each in June at Bolton Crown Court after admitting conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and conspiracy to commit burglary.

Webster, 26, was handed a two-year community order after pleading guilty to money laundering, having transferred thousands of pounds of O’Malley’s ill-gotten gains to the United Arab Emirates.

Annie Webster

This illicit cash was discovered during Operation Longridge, a Greater Manchester Police investigation into serious organised crime focussing on O’Malley.

She was present in the public gallery and wept as her partner was jailed.

Cullen, formerly of Honister Avenue in Orford, was locked up for 22-and-a-half years at Liverpool Crown Court in May after admitting conspiracy to supply firearms and cocaine.

The 34-year-old had been on the run for nearly two years before being captured in Dubai in January 2020.

Following the sentencing, Merseyside Police's detective constable Phil Poynton said: "This was a brutal and sustained attack which resulted in serious injuries, threats and was a deeply traumatic experience for both victims to go through.

"Our investigation has established that the dispute centred around alleged cannabis production from rival criminals.

"That it should have escalated to such extreme violence is beyond belief, and we’re pleased to see three dangerous men being removed from the streets for a long time.

"The production, storage and supply of drugs can, as in this case, lead to threats, violence and significant harm being caused in our communities.

"Cannabis use is far from being a victimless crime and this case is a stark reminder that when people buy drugs, even in small quantities, there exists a whole supply chain where organised criminals profit from the fear and misery they spread.

"If you have any information about such activity, please call 999 if a crime is in process or pass information on in one of the following ways, and we will take action."

Serious crime prevention orders could be imposed on O’Malley, Scurfield and McColl by the court later in the year.