Getaway driver guilty over Dalston gang shooting that nearly killed nine-year-old girl

A career criminal who helped organise a bungled assassination for a Turkish gang that resulted in a nine-year-old girl being shot in the head by a stray bullet is facing years behind bars.

Javon Riley, 33, was recruited to take part in the planning of the ride-by hit in Dalston, east London, organised by the Tottenham Turks on May 29 last year.

The girl was seriously injured when some of the bullets from the drive-by shooting missed their target as she was eating dinner with her family at the Evin restaurant in Kingsland High Street.

A bullet lodged in her brain while three other men – Mustafa Kiziltan, Kenan Aydogdu and Nasser Ali, who were seated with others at a pavement table outside the busy restaurant – were hit on various parts of their bodies.

The three men were said to be affiliated with the Hackney Turks organised crime gang, who had a rivalry with the Tottenham Turks, with whom Riley had links.

Riley was found guilty today of the attempted murder of the three men, as well as causing grievous bodily harm to the nine-year-old girl following a three-week trial at the Old Bailey.

He did not pull the trigger, but jurors heard he played ‘a key role before, during and after the shooting’.

Riley carried out reconnaissance of the restaurant, travelled past the scene several times to ensure the target or targets were present before the shooting and he helped the gunman evade capture.

The gunman has never been tracked down.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC remanded Riley into custody to be sentenced on September 12.

He told him to expect a lengthy prison sentence, saying: ‘You have clearly taken part in a shooting which has led to four people being injured, one of them particularly seriously.’

Prosecutor James Mulholland KC said: ‘The prosecution case is that this was a planned assassination of members of a rival gang by Mr Riley and others.

‘This is evident from the degree of planning involved, his behaviour and comments before, during and after the event – as well as common sense.

‘Those who wanted this shooting to take place put the planning of the event under Mr Riley’s control, possibly with the assistance of others.’

Mr Mulholland added that the shooting appeared to have been part of ‘an ongoing dispute’ between two rival groups in London known as the Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Turks, also known as the ‘Bombacilars’, but the ‘immediate reason for it was unknown’.

He said: ‘These two gangs have had an intense rivalry for well over a decade which has involved the use of extreme violence towards one another during that period, and it is the prosecution case that what was intended was the murder of whomever was targeted.’

Those seated outside restaurant had affiliations towards the Hackney Turks and the ones who had ordered the shooting were from the Tottenham Turks, the court heard.

Mr Mulholland told the jury: ‘You will hear in conversations covertly recorded in a car used by Javon Riley some time after the shooting that, although he was not a member of the Tottenham Turks, he clearly knew of them and was linked to them and that they were behind the shooting.’

The Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Turks have been shooting and stabbing each other in north London for decades.

Covert police recordings in the months after the shooting, show Riley talking about a man called Izzet Eren, who is linked to the Tottenham Turks and was shot in Moldova on July 10 last year in what was believed to be a revenge attack.

He also spoke about a man called ‘Kem’, whom the prosecution believe is Kemal Eren – one of those closely involved in the Tottenham Turks.

In 2015, Jermaine Baker was shot dead by armed police during an attempt to break Eren out from a prison van taking him to a hearing at Wood Green Crown Court.

The Tottenham Turks also organised the horrific murder of a popular DJ who was tortured to death in a restaurant.

Koray Alpergin, 43, was the owner of Turkish radio station Bizim FM and had connections with celebrities such as rapper P Diddy and internet sensation ‘Salt Bae’.

He was kidnapped from outside his north London home with his girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak, 34, and frog-marched into a white van after enjoying his last meal in Mayfair.

The DJ suffered ‘horrific injuries’ before he was killed while Ms Gozde was locked in a toilet at the Stadium Lounge, just yards from Spurs’ ground, for two days.

His naked body was then dumped in woodland in Loughton, Essex, before it was found by a dog walker.

Mr Alpergin suffered 94 injuries, including 14 broken ribs and severe head injuries, ligature injuries to his neck and injuries to his genitals.

Ali Armagan, of the Hackney Turks, was shot dead in an Audi outside Turnpike Lane in 2012 and Zafer Eren of the Tottenham Turks was killed in Southgate the following year.

The court heard Riley has a string of convictions dating back to 2008 including for possession of cannabis and cocaine, driving offences, and having an offensive weapon and a blade in his car.

In addition, the defendant said he had been involved with stealing cars, drug dealing and robberies, although he had never been caught for those offences.

He said he began taking cars ‘for fun’ at the age of 15, going on to steal them to order and shipping them abroad.

He picked drug dealers to rob because the money could not be traced and the victims were unlikely to go to police, jurors heard.

The defendant said he would carry out between two and five robberies a month, sometimes working with others, and would make anything from £30,000 to more than £200,000.

Asked about his role in the robberies, Riley said: ‘Sometimes I’m the driver or the muscle.’

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