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A man told a judge to "shut up" and called him a "b***end as he was ordered to leave court. The foul mouthed outburst came as members of an organised crime group in Merseyside were jailed for nearly 50 years, having stashed a Skorpion submachine which was used to shoot a woman in the leg was discovered in an Under Armour rucksack. Scott Howard and Anthony Nelson, who led what was described as a "Rice Lane drug dealing fraternity", employed Liam Duffy and Terry Riley as "lieutenants" in their "Wong" and "Won Chin" heroin and cocaine supply chains. The DNA of drug users Gary Bell and Stephen Moore was meanwhile found on the firearm. The "head of the branch" was linked to a second gun which was found fitted with a silencer in woodland alongside a petrol cannister, reports the ECHO . Join our Court and Crime WhatsApp group HERE Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday, Friday, that another defendant, Terence Clarke, was involved in the "supply of controlled drugs within this city at a high level", having used the EncroChat handle "Sacred Truck" before "continuing his criminality" after the encrypted communications platform was infiltrated by French police in 2020. He was said to have been the upstream supply of the "Wong" and "Won Chin" graft lines, which were run by Howard and Nelson and involved the supply of heroin and cocaine to users in the Rice Lane area. Nicola Daley, prosecuting, detailed how these operations were "active from at least the end of 2022", with Riley and Duffy having been "trusted to manage or control the graft phone". This led to the latter being detained on April 17 2023, having discarded a black Nokia phone which contained the SIM card relating to the Wong Line as he attempted to evade arrest. A Skorpion submachine gun was meanwhile recovered from a flat which was controlled by one of the ring's customers, Anthony Bosenquet, on Grey Road in Walton on March 2, 2023. This firearm was subsequently found to have been used during two shootings the previous year. One, in April 2022, saw a woman in her 50s, Beverley Tynan, shot in the leg on Deverall Grove in Wavertree. Her son, Charlie Tynan, was subsequently convicted of offences relating to his involvement of the supply of class A drugs. The second occurred around a week later on the Beechwalk in Stoneycroft. This saw shots fired through the front window of the home of Jason Hughes, who was also later convicted of being involved in the production and supply of cannabis. The gun was found wrapped inside a tea towel within a black Under Armour rucksack which was recovered from the bathroom of the address, with a silencer and loaded magazines also being seized by Merseyside Police at this time. Bosenquet, known as "Boz", was previously jailed for five-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm and possession of cannabis and cannabis resin with intent to supply. DNA belonging to both Bell and Moore, also evidenced to have purchased drugs from the Wong Line, was subsequently discovered on the Skorpion. Ms Daley added: "It is the crown's case that both Gary Bell and Stephen Moore had been involved, at some stage, in the storage or movement of that Skorpion prior to it being recovered. "The prosecution submit that Scott Howard enlisted the assistance of Zac Bosenquet, and through him his father, Anthony Bosenquet, and other friends, associates or drug users in relation to the storage of the Skorpion." Howard was then spotted in woodland near to Rice Lane Recreation Ground in the company of a second male on the evening of April 19, 2023, with a police helicopter subsequently tracing their movements towards the Liverpool Loop Line. While the other man was able to escape on an electric bicycle, he was ultimately arrested on foot in possession of a pair of gloves and a balaclava. Officers then searched the woods and discovered an abandoned bike and a rucksack containing a cannister of petrol, with a loaded Zoraki 917 blank-firing handgun, which had been converted to enable its discharge of 9mm calibre ammunition, found hidden in a nearby bush. A silencer had also been fitted to this prohibited weapon. It came after Howard became embroiled in an earlier plot to smuggle cannabis, phone and tobacco into HMP Liverpool during 2021, while he was a serving prisoner. This scheme was uncovered when guards noticed a drone flying in the area near to the jail on December 20 that year. When the light aircraft was thereafter seized, it was found to have made three previous flights into Walton prison. This also led to the discovery of a package containing 62g of cannabis, having a street value of between £350 and £500 but being worth £3,100 to £4,650 inside a custodial setting. Quantities of tobacco worth £20 to £50 on the outside were also recovered, although their value was said to skyrocket to between £2,800 and £3,150 once inside the prison. A mobile phone which was attached to the device meanwhile contained records of a total of 31 flights into the establishment. A second drone which was recovered as part of the investigation had meanwhile made six trips into HMP Liverpool from November 2021 onwards. It was estimated that, in total, the conspiracy had been responsible for contraband worth between £236,000 and £312,000 flown into the jail over an eight-month period. Howard, of no fixe d address, has a total of 18 previous convictions for 29 offences, including two years for possession of heroin and cannabis with intent to supply in 2007. Jonathan Duffy said on behalf of the 35-year-old: "He has reflected on his behaviour and actions at this time. "The passage of time and separation from his family have caused him to realise the effect that his actions have had on them and on his relationship with them. The family was a close family with young children, one of whom has got his difficulties. "In my submission, the remorse that he expresses in his letter to the court is genuine. He understands, inevitably, that he is going to be separated from his family for a further significant period. Once he has served that period, Scott Howard never intends to offend again. "He was not directly involved in selling or distributing wholesale quantities of class A drugs. He was managing those street level lines. This is not a case where he was operating at the highest level of drug dealing. "He was operating quite prolifically, but it was at street level. There is no evidence of a lavish lifestyle or significant amounts of cash. He was dealing and selling relatively modest quantities at street level." Riley, of Glan Aber Park in West Derby, has 20 previous court appearances for 45 offences, but none since 2017. The 34-year-old's counsel Simon Driver said: "This time in custody has been his first in adult detention, following his first conviction for many years. "Those many years where he resisted offending were spent in a steady relationship. He has a son, who is now seven years old. The relationship has not withstood the upset of his incarceration, but his relationship with his son has. That is a relationship to which he attaches great significant indeed. "He worked for many years as a chef in a public house. He was laid off when the pub closed down and could not resist the temptation of earning a dishonest income." Gary Bell, of Northfield Road in Bootle, has 37 previous convictions for 74 offences. Philip Tully, defending the 48-year-old, told the court: "At the time of the offence, Gary Bell was a vulnerable person with a long standing addiction to controlled drugs. "The prosecution is not able to say how long the prohibited weapon was in his possession. The evidence is consistent with the firearm being taken to his address by a third person. Your honour knows that he was a drug user, and that may well be relevant to his involvement. There is no evidence that Gary Bell knew the firearm had been used in the shooting nearly 12 months prior." Of his client's spell in custody to date, Mr Tully added: "He has not had the best times. He is not in the best of health. He has also suffered the death of his partner during the time that he has been in custody. That has caused him immense grief. To his credit, he tells me that he has managed to rid himself of his addiction and intends to put his offending behind him." Moore, of no fixed address, has a "long antecedent history", comprising of 47 convictions for 90 offences. This includes appearances for possession of cannabis with intent to supply in 1997 and possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply in 2005. The 53-year-old's barrister Charles Lander said: "He was homeless at the time. We were never clear when he must have had some contact with the gun. He clearly was only in contact with that gun on one day. "It is fair to say that he has had a difficult time in custody. Because he pleaded guilty, somebody has thought or said something that has made his time in custody very difficult. The one positive feature is he is now off the drugs that he was addicted to. Both of his parents are deceased. His desire is to move out of Liverpool because of the difficult time he has had in custody." Duffy, of Radmore Road in Knotty Ash, meanwhile has eight convictions for 18 offences, including possession of heroin and cocaine with intent to supply in 2014, possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply in 2016 and conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine in 2018. His barrister Desmond Lennon said: "He is intending, once this sentence is complete, to make a fresh start. "His partner works as a care assistant for elderly people and young children. The defendant has three children with her. He looked after them well. The children themselves have neurodiversity issues. By the position he has found himself in, he is very much of view that he has let his children down, he has let his partner down and, most of all, he has let himself down. "He had a gardening business which collapsed. As a result, he, unhappily, returned the old ways and fell into that lifestyle too easily for his own good. He has had plenty of time to reflect. He realises that, having spent approximately seven years of his life in custody, and he is still only 28, he wants a future for himself and his family. He wants to make do as well as he can. "Upon his release, he intends re-establish his gardening business and hopes that his fortunes will be better than they have been in the past. He is sorry and ashamed, genuinely contrite and remorseful. He went into it knowing what he was involved in. He wants to be a better person once he has reached the end of this sentence." Howard was convicted of conspiracy to possess a prohibited firearm following a trial in relation to the Skorpion submachine gun, having pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a prohibited firearm, namely the Zoraki handgun and silencer, possession of ammunition without a certificate, conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and three charges of conspiracy to convey prohibited articles into a prison. Appearing in the dock wearing a black Givenchy jumper, he was jailed for 21 years and two months. Duffy admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine. Wearing a grey Montirex tracksuit in the dock, he stood with his arms folded as he was handed eight years behind bars. Riley similarly pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine. Wearing a black North Face tracksuit top, he nodded and gave a thumbs up to the judge as he was sentenced to six years imprisonment. Moore, wearing a brown and yellow zip-up top, and Bell, who wore a navy blue Castore coat, each admitted conspiracy to possess a prohibited firearm. They were locked up for five and six years respectively. Sentencing, Judge David Swinnerton said: "The drugs conspiracy covers a lengthy period. The overall conspiracy involved Terence Clarke at the top of this particular tree, relating to his use of the EncroChat handle SacredTruck and the following three years of this sophisticated drug supply business. "Those conspiracies involved the movement of very large amounts of class A drugs. Although that is the overall conspiracy, I have to consider where each of you sits in the overall picture and what your particular roles were. "You, Scott Howard, together with Anthony Nelson, were running what is known as the Wong or Won Chin graft line, one of the sub branches of the overall conspiracy. It was your business, Mr Howard, together with Mr Nelson, and had been for a significant period of time prior to your arrests. "You told us that you had been friends with Terence Clarke for at least 10 years. Some of your contact would have been social friendship, but a lot was over your purchase of drugs. He was your wholesaler. You were purchasing drugs from him and selling them on. It continued beyond Terence Clarke being remanded into custody. "Although not at the top of the conspiracy, at the head of that branch is you, Mr Howard, together with Mr Nelson. Working for you were Liam Duffy and Terry Riley. Both were trusted to manage or control the graft phone on behalf of the business. They were your employees or lieutenants, on the rung below you, doing work for you, running that graft line. It was a street dealing operation that you were involved in. "With regards to the Skorpion submachine pistol. That was used in two shootings in April and May 2022. I make clear that it is not suggested that any of you were involved in any of those shootings. "The prosecution's case is that, after those shootings, the firearm had to be stored somewhere. This is the purpose of safehouses, to store firearms, ammunition or drugs, not at the homes of those at the head of those operations but in other people's houses, at arm's length. "That Skorpion itself was recovered from a flat in the Rice Lane area, your patch as drug dealers. Whether anyone was ever living there is doubtful, having seen that state of it. It was one which Anthony Bosenquet had access to. When the firearm was recovered, DNA from both Gary Bell and Stephen Moore was recovered from it. "You were known associates of each other. It is the prosecution's case, and I find, that you were involved in either the storage or movement of the Skorpion at some point. You, at some point, had your hands on it, hence your DNA. You were useful in the storage or movement of that gun before it was recovered." To Howard, the judge added: "You came to assist that group in looking after, hiding, keeping safe, keeping available, keeping out of the hands of the police, the Skorpion. In doing that, you had the help of others around that Rice Lane drug dealing fraternity. "While on bail, you were arrested in the vicinity of Rice Lane Recreation Ground. You left a rucksack in the woods before walking away towards the Loop Line, where you were caught by police. Whoever was on the bike got away. "You were arrested in possession of gloves and a balaclava. Police returned to the bike and found a Zoraki firearm, loaded and with a sound moderator fitted, together with a cannister of petrol. "You became involved in conspiracies to smuggle phones, tobacco and cannabis into HMP Liverpool. You were the person on the inside. It is obvious that amounts like that had been brought in not for individual, personal use, but because there is a high profit margin to be made from getting that sort of material into prison. "There cannot be many people in this city who are unaware of the potential effects of a Skorpion being fired. What you have been doing risks devastating other people's families, both because of the impacts of class A drugs and the potential for devastation by having lethal firearms hidden, ready for use on the streets of Liverpool. "You intended that it would be available as and when whoever you were storing it for needed it. You played a central role in this particular conspiracy. "You have written to me in terms which I hope are true. You are going to miss a substantial chunk of your children's childhoods. That is a great shame to them. You can still be a good father to them, or you go back to prison and waste your life." Clapping and cheers were heard in the public gallery as the judge determined that his drug dealing charges should be graded in category two, rather than category one. This led to one of Howard's supporters saying: "Sorry, I'm just happy mate. Well in Scott lad. I apologise, I apologise mate." However, one man was then seen to storm out of courtroom 31 as he learned his ultimate sentence, while another shouted towards the dock "Scott, don't worry lad, it's sweet". Having been ordered to leave court as a result, he then added: "Shut up lad. B***end." Turning to Duffy, Judge Swinnerton said: "You were employed by Mr Howard and Mr Nelson. You were operating for significant financial advantage. You were trusted. You have a very poor record for class A drug dealing. This is your fourth time." Of Moore, the judge added: "You were a drug user, and you were useful. You were a rung below on the ladder. You played a limited, albeit trusted, role." Judge Swinnerton meanwhile told Bell: "You yourself have a long standing drug addiction. You are in ill health. I am aware that your partner died while you were in custody. That has no doubt been difficult for you." Nelson, of Colquitt Street in Liverpool city centre, admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine. The 28-year-old will be sentenced back before the same court on Wednesday next week.
