LAW1008 Faculty of Business and Law

1. Alfie, Benjamin and Chris are members of the notoriously violent Kingsthorpe Boys, a gang who are frequently involved in violence, knife crime and drug dealing. The gang are rivals with another gang the Northampton Crew who they believe are trying to steal their business. The two gangs routinely fight each other and tensions are always running high. David, Eugene and Fred are all members of the Northampton Crew.

2. Gabrielle is Alfie’s girlfriend and often associates with the Kingsthorpe Boys. One night she goes with a group of her girlfriends to the Flames Nightclub. Several members of the Kingsthorpe Boys and the Northampton Crew are present and although there are tensions they initially keep away from each other. Everyone is having a good time and dancing. David sees Gabrielle on the dance floor and decides to approach her. Gabrielle is initially flattered by the attention and flirts with him; she giggles when David pulls her towards him for a kiss and they begin to dance very closely. Whilst they are dancing David begins to stroke her breast and Gabrielle makes no complaint about this.  However, when she realises that Benjamin and Chris are looking, she pushes David away and shouts “don’t touch me you creep” as she knows that if Alfie finds out he will beat her up (something that he has been doing throughout their 3 year relationship).  

3. Benjamin and Chris see Gabrielle pushing David away. They are furious that a rival gang member has been showing an interest in one of their girls and approach David.  Benjamin angrily waves his fist in David’s face to frighten him He misjudges the distance however and breaks David’s nose. Eugene turns around to see what the commotion is and accidently bumps into Chris. Chris reacts by stamping hard on Eugene’s foot, bruising it. Seeing the fury on Eugene’s face Chris immediately apologises, claiming that he didn’t see the foot and was only stamping in order to frighten Eugene. At this point the door staff become involved and calm appears to be restored.

4. David and Eugene leave the club but are still angry with what has happened so they decide to wait for Benjamin and Chris outside with the aim of teaching them a lesson. As Benjamin and Chris approach them, Eugene pulls a flick knife from his pocket and waves it in Chris’s face. Chris says “I’m not scared of you, you idiot” at which Eugene lashes out and stabs Chris in the leg, severing an artery.  

5. Victor, a passer-by who had come out of another nightclub nearby, decided to shout insults at Eugene.  He was very drunk and the door staff at Flames thought he might cause more trouble as he was very angry and aggressive.  Ursula, Walter and Xavier, three of the door staff, rushed out, piled on top of him and pinned Victor to the floor to stop him from causing more trouble.  They held him down for about 6 minutes, until Victor stopped shouting and struggling.  It was at this point that the three of them realised that Victor was unconscious and let him go.  Walter decided to get a glass of water and throw this at Victor to try and bring him round.  An ambulance was eventually called and Victor did not regain consciousness.

6. Whilst this commotion is happening David approaches Benjamin and pushes him so hard that he falls and hits his head on the pavement. An ambulance is called and Benjamin and Chris are taken to hospital. The police arrive and PC Watts approaches Eugene in order to arrest him but as he is being arrested Eugene pulls away. PC Watts falls over, cutting his arm on a broken glass. The cuts require 17 stitches.

7. When in the hospital, Chris refuses stitches in his leg because the nurse is a woman and “women are completely useless, no woman is going to stitch me up”. He bleeds to death as a result of this refusal.  Benjamin receives treatment for a bruise on his head but suffers from frequent losses of concentration for months after the attack. The doctor says that these may last for the rest of his life.

8. The following day word begins to spread that there has been a fight involving some gang members and that a member of the Northampton Crew has tried it on with Gabrielle. Both gangs are adamant that the other is to blame and vow to take revenge; as a result tensions are running high. Later that day two younger members of the Kingsthorpe Boys, Harry and Ian are standing on the street laughing at a picture on their mobile phone.  Fred walks by and mistakenly thinks they are laughing at him. He runs at them shouting “Oi, I want to talk to you”. Harry and Ian are both scared and run off in separate directions. Harry trips and falls and breaks his leg; Ian is so terrified that he jumps off a bridge and severely injures himself. They are both taken to hospital. Harry is given treatment for his broken leg but this causes a severe allergic reaction, which kills him. Ian is attended to by Dr Anthony, who realises that Ian will die within an hour. The doctor gives him a succession of pain killing drugs, which kill him in 30 minutes. This is fortuitous for Dr Anthony as he can now just catch his flight in time for his skiing holiday.

9. Gabrielle keeps quiet about the fact that she had been flirting with David through fear of what Alfie will do, however she realises that she likes David and that he would probably treat her far better than Alfie does.  Over the following few days Gabrielle and David exchange friendly messages on Facebook.  Unknown to Gabrielle, Alfie secretly checks her messages and finds the ones from David. He is furious and calls Gabrielle lots of names including saying that she is “a filthy bitch and a whore”; he then grabs her by the throat and tries to strangle her although he stops before she passes out. Gabrielle promises not to contact David again.  After Alfie has gone to bed, Gabrielle stews on what has happened and, afraid of what Alfie might do when he wakes up the next morning, she gets a kitchen knife in the middle of the night and stabs Alfie to death whilst he is asleep.

10. Jermaine, a 19 year old, regularly buys drugs from members of the Northampton Crew. He lives with his parents who are very strict. They are unaware that he is currently using drugs and he knows that if they find out they will throw him out. Although Jermaine needs drugs he has no money and so Fred agrees that he can pay for them the following week. A few days later, Fred turns up at Jermaine’s house with a package containing white powder. He tells Jermaine that if he doesn’t look after it for him then he will tell his parents about the drug use. Jermaine is terrified as he does not want to be homeless and so agrees to look after the package. A week later Fred returns with a second package which looks like cannabis. Jermaine tells him that he is not willing to hold the packages any longer but Fred replies “you will if you know what’s good for you; I don’t want to ruin that pretty face of yours and I would hate to see your house burn to the ground.”  As a result, Jermaine agrees to look after the packages.  The following morning at 6am the police raid Jermaine’s house and find the packages. He is charged with possession of Class A and B drugs. Subsequent analysis of the drugs reveals that they are in fact talcum powder and tea leaves.

11. Fred also occasionally supplies drugs to Ricky. On the way back from Jermaine’s house he receives a phone call from Ricky asking for some heroin and so he delivers the heroin to Ricky’s house.  Fred stays at the house for a chat whilst Ricky injects the drug. Suddenly Ricky becomes extremely ill and collapses on the floor. Realising that Ricky has over dosed, Fred panics and leaves the house without calling for medical help. The following day Ricky’s housemate discovers him dead on the living room floor.

12. Following Alfie and Chris’s death the Kingsthorpe Boys are furious with the Northampton Crew; in particular David who they hold ultimately responsible. The gang vow to seek revenge and gather to plan how they are going to attack David. It is agreed that Benjamin’s girlfriend Kim will go to Flames nightclub where she will flirt with David and entice him to join her at the local park late at night. Approximately 10 remaining gang members, including Benjamin, Leon, Malik and Wesley agree to lie in wait and attack David when he arrives. There is no express mention of what will happen to David, just an agreement that he is going to get beaten up.  There is no discussion about using weapons although most of the gang know that the others carry knives for protection and are aware of previous incidents where knives have been used

13. Kim goes to the club with three of her friends; Simone, Tia and Violet. Kim feels anxious about approaching David but knows that if she has a few drinks it will give her the confidence to see it through. Simone, Kim and Violet drink 10 vodkas each but Tia is taking antibiotics and so sticks to lemonade. Simone feels that Tia needs to relax a little so adds vodka to each of her drinks without Tia’s knowledge. The girls are standing at the bar when Violet sees Will, an old school friend. Violet and Will are chatting and flirting so Simone and Tia head to the dance floor. Whilst they are dancing another girl stumbles into Simone. Simone is furious and throws her drink over the girl. Unfortunately the glass slips out of her hand and hits the girl on the head with such force that she falls to the floor. Whilst the girl is on the floor Tia delivers a hard kick to her back. As a result the girl sustains a fractured eye socket and bruising to her kidneys. Simone and Tia decide to leave and find Violet who is sitting in a corner kissing Will. They try to encourage her to leave with them but she is very drunk and refuses, saying “I want to go home with Will” so the girls leave without her. Will and Violet leave the club shortly after and walk hand in hand towards the taxi rank.  The following morning Violet wakes up at Will’s house with no recollection of the night before.

14. Meanwhile, Kim finds David in the club. She is all over him and asks him to go with her somewhere quieter; he readily agrees and they walk out of the club together. Several members of the Northampton Crew are at the club including Eugene and Fred and they are suspicious of Kim so decide to follow the pair in their car. Other members of the Crew also follow in a separate car.  

15. A large group is waiting at the park and when David arrives they immediately set upon him. They punch him and when he falls to the floor they begin to kick him in the head.  Several of the group, including Leon and Malik do not join in with the violence. Leon stands at the entrance to the park acting as a lookout whilst Malik shouts words of encouragement towards the rest of the group. During the attack, much to the surprise of the rest of the group Benjamin pulls a gun and points it towards David. He shouts “this is for Alfie” and pulls the trigger but misses David and shoots Wesley in the shoulder causing serious injury. Benjamin then pulls a knife and stabs David in the thigh.

16. The cars carrying the Northampton Crew then arrive at the park. When they arrive Eugene and Fred decide to drive at the group in order to frighten them.  The car had been serviced the day before and unbeknown to them the mechanic, Norman, had been in a rush and had failed to properly fix the breaks. As they are driving the brakes fail and the car swerves into a tree. Eugene dies instantly whilst Fred is seriously injured.

17. The group attacking David see the crash and the second car carrying Northampton Crew members. They run towards the car carrying the Northampton Crew brandishing weapons. They begin to kick and hit the car which causes major damage to the bodywork and breaks the windscreen. The driver, Oscar, fearing for his life drives off at speed through a pedestrian only area of the town centre.  People have to jump out of the way of the speeding car which continues for several miles before stopping when a police car pulls it over.

18. As the group chase Oscar’s car, David is left on the ground with a stab wound to his thigh. Raj, a paramedic, walks through the park on his way home from work and sees David lying on the floor shouting for help. Raj is desperate to get home as he is already late and is supposed to be taking his wife out for a meal. He ignores David and goes home. David dies of blood loss from the wound. It is not known whether he would have survived or not if treated.