In this news:
A dangerous hitman behind a series of gangland shootings threw a bottle of acid into a dad's face, and is said to have "reached the depths of inhumanity". Known "Deli Mob" gangster Jonathan Gordon offered to carry out the sickening attack on encrypted messaging platform EncroChat, with a fee of £6,000 for an acid attack and £10,000 to blind a victim. Horrific messages showed his plans to "cook" victims while bragging about the strength of the acid. He ultimately threw the acid at Lee Deakin in St Helens in April 2019, leaving him temporarily blinded, with two similar attacks called off at the last minute. He was also involved in the shootings across Liverpool and Warrington, before an EncroChat hack led to his arrest in early 2020. In June 2022, he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 24 years and eight months, and was told by a judge: "Your complete disregard for the sanctity of life and fellow human beings knows no bounds." The identity of the kingpin who hired the thug for at least one of his attacks was unknown until recently. According to our sister title the Liverpool ECHO , he has been revealed as Philip Waugh, who was arrested in the Costa del Sol. Gordon's gang, known as the "Deli Mob" for the Delamore Street area of Kirkdale, was notorious in north Liverpool for ripping off drug dealers, mainly by burgling cannabis farms operated by rivals. His earliest appearance in court was in 2011, when he was handed down anti-social behaviour orders. The Deli Mob's turf war brought extreme violence to the streets, with Gordon himself the victim of a brutal attack with a meat cleaver by a rival in 2012. He suffered cuts across his body, with tendons and bones severed in his left arm, but was jailed for eight months after admitting to affray. At some stage during the 2010s, he became a hitman-for-hire, offering to carry out attacks via EncroChat . His attack on Lee Deakin left the dad requiring intensive medical care and left him unrecognisable to his son . Mr Deakin said later: Mr Deakin said: "I felt a splash of liquid on my face and my eyes burned, everything went dark, it burned my mouth and everything tasted like chemicals." He added: "My skin felt like jelly. As I washed my face it felt as if my skin was falling off my face." Several years later, a victim impact statement read in court said: "I worried that I would forget my children’s faces. I thought about the fact they would age and their faces would change, but I would only ever know them as children ." Mr Deakin would later identify Gordon as his attacker from an identity parade. A second acid attack on a man named Joe Bradley was called off after the UK went into its first Covid-19 lockdown, and the thugs were worried about police seeing their stolen car on the empty streets. A further plan to blind another man, Nathan Simpson, came worryingly close to succeeding, with CCTV at the victim's property putting him off alongside hitman Dylan Johnston and getaway driver Stephen Wissett, but plans continued to stab Mr Simpson in the leg to prevent him from washing his face. However, the trio were forced to flee after police approached their vehicle. A boss with the alias "AceProspect" on EncroChat ordered Gordon to "double the dose him and bird proper, blind them both...I just want his face melted." The pair gloated over the fact the acid obtained for the job had melted a metal container. Ironically, Mr Simpson's fate could have been saved by somebody else leaving a hand grenade outside his home. The increased attention after armed police and bomb squad officers attended seemed to put the attackers off coming back. Further encrypted messages showed Gordon had also been involved in two street gun fights with unidentified men in 2020. Following the second shooting in May 2020, which ended with a bullet firing through an elderly couple's bedroom window, a crown court judge told him: "The world in which you live brings you into conflict with others. You would not shy away and did not shy away from such conflict, and you had a firearm and ammunition to assist you in that regard." He admitted on EncroChat to his boss that he had lost a pistol in the attack. An image from news coverage of the incident showed his hand, with a fingerprint expert comparing Gordon's hand with the one in the picture, and said both belonged to him. Gordon and Dylan Johnston also organised a group to carry out a drive-by shooting in March 2020, with phone records also showing that both called each other immediately afterwards. However, his messages ended up being his downfall, and he was eventually arrested and charged as part of the National Crime Agency's Operation Venetic, which came about following police in France hacking the EncroChat network. He was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court of three counts of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm, a further two of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, and another of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life. His accomplices Johnston and Wissett were jailed for a combined total of 39 years. Ben Rutter, operations manager at the National Crime Agency (NCA), said: " Jonathan Gordon is a terrifyingly dangerous offender , he was totally unconcerned about blinding someone for money. This investigation spanned a number of years and brought out the best in our officers who were aided by superb work from Merseyside Police and Cheshire Police." Just last week, the identity of boss "AceProspect" was revealed as Philip Waugh, who appeared at the same court after being detained in the Costa del Sol, where he had been living for several years. He admitted conspiring with Gordon for one of the acid attacks, but denied the same charge for others. He also admitted he had trafficked sub-machine guns and assault rifles on EncroChat and provided Gordon with a handgun. He is expected to return to court on June 27 for sentencing .
.png)
