Stack of guns found hidden under floorboard after Mansfield shooting

Police found a cache of guns hidden under the floorboard at a safe house in Bulwell days after a Nottingham gunman had used one of them to shoot a man four times. A sawn-off shotgun, revolver, pistol, a silencer and ammunition had all been hidden there by Vincent Brown after he fired into the legs and arm of the victim in a seemingly almost motiveless shooting.

Moments earlier, he had been viciously attacked by co-defendant Ti Carr having been lured to the flat by a third criminal called Zeke Dalziel. Then, when the three of them had been arrested and were in prison, they enlisted the help of others on the outside to either threaten or pay the shooting victim to change the statement he had given to the police.

Jailing four of the seven defendants involved in the shooting for a combined total of more than 37 years, Judge Mark Watson said: “Vincent Brown, you used the Mersey Street address to grow cannabis and to store firearms and ammunition. You have demonstrated not only are you prepared to access weapons but prepared to use them.

“This was a planned attack by both you and Carr and I don’t suppose the court will ever know why you did it because neither you nor Carr have given an explanation and I don’t accept it was over the theft of a small amount of drugs.

“The attack itself was brutal with 11 wounds either entry or exit and I conclude he was shot four times. He was a sitting target for a bullet and was completely defenceless. This was revenge for something.”

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John Hallissey, prosecuting at Nottingham Crown Court, said the shooting took place on the evening of December 9, 2022, at a flat where Angela Dalziel - the mother of Zeke - lived in Noel Street, Mansfield. He said the victim had previously been in a relationship with her and had stolen some drugs from her months earlier which he later told the police was the only motive he could think of why he was later attacked.

The prosecutor said the man received a phone call from her mobile phone made by her son, Zeke, asking him to come to the address, which he did and when he knocked on the door it was opened by Mr Dalziel. Mr Hallissey said: “He entered a hallway and saw Ti Carr emerge from a bedroom and immediately set about him launching a vicious attack with Ti Carr using either a knuckle duster or metal item to repeatedly hit him to the head and face.

“As he was pinned against the front door, Vincent Brown emerged from the same bedroom and he had in his hand a gun which he raised, tilted to one side and shot him four times to the legs and arm.”

Mr Hallissey said following the shooting Carr and Brown left and went to the safe house where co-defendant Brett Goodman lived, in Mersey Street, Bulwell, where the pistol was wrapped in a towel and placed under a floorboard along with “a cache of weapons” which were later discovered by the police. He said police went to arrest Brown at his partner’s address in St Anns and when he saw them he made off in his van and led officers on a high-speed chase during which he drove at 70mph in a 30mph limit, jumped red lights and, after coming to stop in his VW van, reversed into a police officer who had got out of his car to try and arrest him.

The prosecutor said: “Police went to the Mersey Street address of Goodman where the house had been turned over to the production of cannabis worth an estimated £20,000 to £60,000. It was a safe house being used by Brown to stash items and beneath a floorboard they found a cache of weapons including the pistol used to shoot the victim, a revolver wrapped in a towel, a sawn-off shotgun, a bag of ammunition and a silencer.”

Mr Hallissey said after arrests were made and Brown, Carr and Zeke Dalziel were in prison custody, they made arrangements from behind bars for two other co-defendants on the outside, Pavel Strecl and a seventh person, Sameer Taha, to visit the shooting victim and pay him £10,000 to change his statement to the police so they were not implicated.

Brown, a 40-year-old father-of-three, of no fixed address, and who has nine convictions for 24 offences - including possession of an imitation firearm - was found guilty of possession with a firearm with intent to endanger life and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, perverting the course and was jaield for 23 years.

Laura Pitman, his barrister, said: “Whether or not a life sentence is justified in this case, my submission is that it is not. It’s a sentence of last resort, a determinate sentence should not be forgotten.

“This was not an offence which was sophisticated and this was not an offence with significant planning.”

Carr, 36, of Allwood Drive, Carlton, and who has 13 convictions for 18 offences, was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice ands was sent to prison for 11-and-a-half years.

Laura Hocknell, mitigating, said: “There’s another side to Ti Carr. He has been in the same job for 10 years, has a long-term partner and a teenage son, both of whom he shows love and devotion to. He is extremely sorry, not for himself but his family.”

Zeke Dalziel, 27, of no fixed address, and who has 10 convictions for 34 offences, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was found not guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He was jailed for 16 months meaning the time he has already spent on remand will mean his immediate, or almost immediate, release.

Simon Eckersley, his barrister, said: “He’s not the originator, he’s not the planner and he’s not the financier. He was the conduit. He says ‘I will never, ever, go back to that life again. In fact, I am thinking about going away from Mansfield’.”

Stercl, 27, of Northwood Crescent, Daybrook, and who has 13 convictions for 32 offences, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was sent to prison for 22 months.

Lucky Thandi, his barrister, said: “He held his hands up at the first opportunity at this court almost 12 months ago now. The offence was borne out of misplaced loyalty to a friend - Mr Carr. He was working as a housing officer for two-and-a-half years before being remanded into custody.”

Angela Dalziel, 49, of Noel Street, Mansfield, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was found not guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. She will be sentenced on Thursday, April 25, as will Goodman, 39, of Mersey Street, Bulwell and Taha, 28, of Bath Street, Nottingham.