{"id":273846,"date":"2025-11-20T16:12:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/273846\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T16:12:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:12:30","slug":"murder-convictions-in-moss-side-joint-enterprise-case-referred-to-court-of-appeal-manchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/273846\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder convictions in Moss Side \u2018joint enterprise\u2019 case referred to court of appeal | Manchester"},"content":{"rendered":"

The convictions of three young black men for murder after a controversial 2017 prosecution<\/a> under the \u201cjoint enterprise\u201d legal doctrine have been referred back to the court of appeal.<\/p>\n

The Criminal Cases Review Commission<\/a> (CCRC) said on Wednesday that new evidence submitted on behalf of Durrell Goodall, Reano Walters and Trey Wilson, who were 20, 19 and 19 respectively when they were convicted, undermines a core of the prosecution\u2019s case that they were members of a gang.<\/p>\n

The CCRC is still considering a similar application from a fourth man, Nathaniel Williams, who was 17 when he was also convicted of murder over the same incident.<\/p>\n

The four were prosecuted after the murder in 2016 of Abdulwahab Hafidah, 18, in the inner city Manchester area of Moss Side. One teenager, Devonte Cantrill, 19, committed the fatal stabbing, but seven defendants were convicted of murder<\/a>, and four of manslaughter, under the \u201cjoint enterprise\u201d law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the men argued in their 2023 application to the CCRC that the \u201cgang narrative\u201d advanced at the trial was based on racist stereotypes of black boys and young men, and that the convictions resulted from \u201cinstitutional racism\u201d<\/a> by the police, prosecution and judge.<\/p>\n

The Greater Manchester<\/a> police (GMP) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) presented a rap music video and selected images from the defendants\u2019 mobile phones as evidence that they were members of a the gang called Active Only, or AO. The judge, Sir Peter Openshaw, directed the jury that they could infer gang \u201cmembership or allegiance\u201d if a defendant had the rap video on their mobile phone.<\/p>\n

Joint enterprise holds all participants in a violent incident, however minor their individual actions, equally guilty if they are found to have intentionally \u201cencouraged and assisted\u201d a person to commit the most serious violence. Accusing people involved in an incident of disorder of being gang members can be crucial to establishing a joint enterprise charge, as it alleges that all had a common motive.<\/p>\n

A series of reviews and academic research<\/a> has found that black boys and young men are disproportionately portrayed as being in gangs and subjected to joint enterprise prosecutions.<\/p>\n

The Moss Side defendants were accused of being members of AO and to have collectively killed Hafidah because he was a member of a rival gang who strayed into their area. The rap video, in which some of the defendants participated, was portrayed in the trial and referred to by Openshaw as a \u201cgang video\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the Guardian reported that the video was recorded at a local youth centre<\/a>, which was publicly funded, and that GMP supported initiatives there. Young people, including some of the defendants, took part in activities that included being encouraged to make rap music as a constructive activity.<\/p>\n

No criminal activity such as drug dealing was alleged to have been carried out by the AO gang, five of the 11 convicted had no criminal records and Openshaw said three other teenagers\u2019 minor convictions were not relevant. Most were studying at college and had good character references. The men and their families have always argued they were not in a gang and did not intend that Hafidah be killed.<\/p>\n

The application to the CCRC, submitted in 2023 by Keir Monteith KC and Darrell Ennis-Gayle of solicitors Hodge Jones and Allen, argued \u201cthere was no violent criminal gang by the name of AO\u201d, and that the convictions are a \u201cgross miscarriage of justice\u201d influenced by institutional racism.<\/p>\n

Lucy Powell, deputy leader of the Labour party, MP for the constituency in which Hafidah was killed, supported the application to the CCRC. She has repeatedly criticised the joint enterprise prosecution<\/a>, saying that gang narratives \u201cseem to be more effectively deployed against young black men from places like Moss Side where underlying preconceptions and prejudices come into play\u201d.<\/p>\n

The CCRC said the new evidence and arguments presented on behalf of Goodall, Walters and Wilson \u201cundermine the \u2018gang narrative\u2019 relied on by the prosecution at trial\u201d. \u201cThere is a real possibility the court of appeal will find the fresh evidence materially undermines the prosecution case,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The CCRC chair, Dame Vera Baird KC, said: \u201cThis referral highlights the need for safeguards to protect defendants against the risk of unfairness from a too readily adopted gang narrative, based on inappropriate labelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible that there are other cases which would benefit from guidance on this issue, where the fear may be that stereotypes can be wrongly introduced as evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monteith said he hoped the court of appeal would reach a decision by the end of next year at the latest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of joint enterprise laws and gang narratives by the CPS has resulted in too many racist miscarriages of justice,\u201d he said, arguing the system needs urgent reform. \u201cThese prosecution tactics are overwhelmingly targeted at young black men and reinforce harmful racial stereotypes that undermine trust in our justice system for racialised and marginalised communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ennis-Gayle said: \u201cThe CCRC decision reflects what we have been arguing for five years: that our clients were convicted because of the colour of their skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

A CPS spokesperson said: \u201cWe note today\u2019s CCRC referral and will carefully consider our next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Goodall, Durrell\u2019s mother, said of the CCRC referral: \u201cThis is amazing news we have been waiting a long time for. There is still a long way to go for our boys to get justice and for us to get them home, but this is a step in the right direction: they are innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The convictions of three young black men for murder after a controversial 2017 prosecution under the \u201cjoint enterprise\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-273846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}