Jail for gang member who shot teen pal

A gang member who accidentally shot and killed his teenage friend while planning a revenge attack on a rival crew was today behind bars after being jailed for 12 years.

Father-of-two Nathan Hamilton, a member of Wolverhampton's notorious Park Village Crew, was holding the gun that blasted 17-year-old Raheem Hines-Thomas in the chest.

The teenager was shot in what High Court Judge Mr Justice MacDuff ruled was a meeting of gang members, who intended to take revenge for an attack on Hamilton's younger brother earlier that day by the rival Firetown Crew.

Hamilton had been sitting opposite the victim in the bedroom of the teen-ager's Park Village home when the gun went off.

Hamilton, of Elmhurst Court, Wednesbury, had admitted holding the gun when it went off but claimed he had not realised it was a gun until after the fatal shot had been fired.

Sentencing 29-year-old Hamilton at Stafford Crown Court yesterday, Mr Justice MacDuff told him: "You are a member of the Park Village Crew, a gang which uses violence and guns.

"I am satisfied that had this gun not gone off when it did, in that bedroom, it would have been discharged shortly afterwards in the street, aimed at a member of a rival gang."

Hamilton was convicted of mans-laughter by a jury last month but acquitted of possessing the firearm with intent to endanger life. The judge said he rejected Hamilton's claims that he was not a member of the gang.

Mr Hines-Thomas was taken by car to New Cross Hospital after being shot on March 19 last year, where he was certified dead. Mr John Cooper QC, defending, said Royal Mail worker Hamilton had no previous convictions and was "like family" to the teenager.