A few weeks before Brissett's murder, Salmon was flaunting his money, wearing a large platinum chain round his neck. He was out driving one evening in Hackney with a girl when an armed gang of about 10 black youths ambushed him, surrounding his car. The driver's window was smashed, and a youth reached in, tearing the chain from his neck. He saw another youth with a gun in the passenger seat. When he got out, Salmon was stabbed in the chest, and his car and mobile phones were stolen. He was taken to hospital and the police were called. He said he recognised Brissett and two other LFB members as his attackers, but did not want police to pursue it because he was making his own attempts to have the car and chain returned. He had phoned one of his stolen mobiles and spoken to one of his attackers, who told him he had been hit because he was "boastie" — too flash. After threats of violence from Salmon, the chain was given back to him at a cafe and his car was left outside a police station with the keys in the ignition.
Joining Salmon and Brown for the London Fields attack was another drug dealer, Mark Lawrence, 21. He had moved to Hertfordshire, where he lived with his girlfriend and child, and dealt drugs. He was tough, arrogant and had a violent record, including convictions for robbery and assault. His first offence was at 18, when his car hit another. He chased the driver, a 70-year-old, and beat him savagely. The man was so frightened that he refused to give evidence. Nevertheless, Lawrence was found guilty and given a six-month sentence. Recalling events before the Brissett murder, Lawrence said Brown had invited him to the fight, saying: "It's beef — we're rolling, are you coming?" Lawrence said, "What's going on?" and Brown replied: "The Field Boys have been following my girl." Lawrence, driving his new black Renault Megane, led the three cars in a convoy.
Within hours of the attack the retaliation began. Heading the LFB's list of culprits to be hunted down was Brown, recognised at the shooting because of his hulking size and lumbering gait. He had disappeared after torching the Escort car he used in the murder to avoid being linked to it. But his relatives were around. Two days after the killing, his half-sister was confronted in the street while pushing her baby in a buggy. Holding a gun to her head, a man demanded to know where her brother was. She was told: "Your brother is an idiot and has to pay for what he did." One of Brown's Holly Street gang had bullets fired at his house. Another of Brown's associates was shot dead a few months later. A gunman walked up to him in his Mini Cooper and shot him in the head. Within hours of the Brissett murder, Salmon learnt the LFB were after him. He bought a bulletproof vest. One week after the killing, the avengers struck. But it appeared to be a case of mistaken identity. A friend of Salmon's, driving the same type of car, was shot and injured.
Another boy, Danny Williams, who was 18, had driven one of the three cars to London Fields. The following day, knowing the vehicle would be traced, and worried it would provide the police with clues, Williams gave it to a friend to get rid of. With revenge shootings taking place, he wanted to escape the area. To raise money to get away, he joined others in a robbery at a car auction, snatching £5,000 from a dealer.
Another in the pack who had been in Williams's car got away — Jermaine Allen, 19, aka Faghead. He was attending a college, where he heard that the LFB were looking for him: "I heard there's three cars in the square looking for me. They're all tinted. Just parked out with boys looking to kill me. Then, the next day, I thought, 'My mum's gonna get hurt.' I was thinking, 'Oh man, what am I gonna do?'" Then he received a threatening call on his phone. He changed his mobile and fled to Nottingham.
When police arrived at the scene of Brissett's murder on June 9, 2003, they faced a hostile crowd, with some accusing the authorities of contributing to his death by delaying an ambulance because the victim was black. Over the next few days, the names of at least three suspects, including Brown and Salmon, were given to the 30 or so officers working on the case. But it was the usual story in such cases. Not wanting to be seen as grasses or to be co-operating, nobody was prepared to name them in a statement, let alone appear against them in a court of law.
The detectives needed evidence, and they got it after eyewitnesses told them of three cars arriving in convoy at the Fields. In the lead was a black Megane, followed by a green Escort, while a white Orion brought up the rear. A trawl through footage from Hackney's many CCTV cameras turned up video of just such a three-car convoy right before the killing time of 8pm.
The registration number of the Escort matched that of a car reported missing four days after the murder. The owner gave police an important break. He told detectives that their main suspect, his friend Brown, had taken it on the afternoon of the murder. When police arrested Brown in south London on suspicion of murder, he said: "What murder, you f***ing pussies?"
Two weeks after the murder, police spotted Lawrence in his black Megane. Calling up reinforcements, they followed him to a housing estate, where a police car blocked the only exit. After a struggle, he was arrested and found to be wearing body armour. "That's the sort of life I lead," he explained. In the boot was clingfilm used to wrap "rocks" of crack. Under the armrest in the car's back seat was a blue ski mask, which Lawrence said he used to hide his face when drug-dealing: "When I go into crack houses, and when there's cameras there, I put it on. When I sell drugs, if I go into a crack house, I'll put it on because of the smell, and sometimes I don't want to show my face — some of them know my face and there's CCTV everywhere."
Lawrence appeared to be equally open about events leading up to Brissett's murder, claiming he thought it was simply going to be a fist fight. Knowing he was in serious trouble because his car had been at the scene, Lawrence answered questions, minimising his role. He gave police the names of a number of people involved in the hunting party. Williams, the Orion's driver, was arrested eight weeks after the murder. He maintained that Brown, Salmon and Lawrence forced him to join the convoy, along with three friends. Of Brown, Williams said: "He's not someone to mess around with. He's like a god in Hackney. Everyone is scared of him. I didn't want to go, 'cause London Fields has got a reputation of shooting people, and I didn't want to go there at all." Describing the shooting, he said someone got out of the Escort wearing a mask and carrying a gun. "He was crouching down with a silver gun. As I drove past, everyone was running." He saw three youths run from the cars towards the flats — among them was Brown. One of Williams's passengers, Allen, told police he saw four people get out of the two other cars, some wearing balaclavas and carrying guns. "I see Pepe with a gun — a long one — eight or nine millimetres," he recalled. "Another one came out of Pepe's car — he was kneeling. I goes, 'Blood.' I said to Daniel [Williams], 'Them boys got guns. We're going. Hurry up! Breeze, 'cause I'm not getting shot again.' Breeze means go."
With Lawrence, Williams and Allen confessing to having driven to the murder scene, detectives made more arrests, including Robbie Thomas, 20, who admitted being there in the black Megane. One of the arrested men was found with a gun. The extra evidence meant detectives could move against the second main suspect, Salmon, who had been released after coming up with an alibi. He was re-arrested while in a car with a friend, with body armour and crack. This time, he too refused to answer questions. Salmon, Brown, Lawrence, Thomas, Williams and Allen were all charged with the murder of Brissett.
In many Trident cases, powerful corroborating evidence comes from suspects' mobiles, and analysis of Brown's and Salmon's showed calls to and from the others before the murder and in its aftermath. The cell-sites used showed they had been in the London Fields area.
During the trial the defendants were separated by security guards. Three of the accused — Lawrence, Williams and Allen — had broken the "no grassing" rule by naming others. Throughout much of the prosecution evidence the main suspect, Brown, behaved strangely in the dock. He was the closest of the defendants to the public gallery above, where members of the Brissett family were sitting, including Brissett's mother, Lana, who never missed a day of the trial. A powerfully built man, Brown sat there for hours, sucking his thumb. Those in the public gallery complained that Brown was not displaying signs of immaturity but, with his thumb in his mouth and his index finger resting on his nose, was making the sign of a gun. He said he felt threatened by those above and that some of them had been making gun signs at him. Last into the witness box was Salmon. He described how gangs in northeast London were named after the estates where they were based. There were the Pembury Boys, Jack Dunning Boys, Stamford Hill Boys, and those from Tottenham. The Holly Street Boys were also known as the Rowdy Bunch. He talked about having sold cocaine and crack since he was 16.
Brown, Lawrence and Salmon were found guilty of murder and Williams and Allen were acquitted. Following the verdicts, Lawrence's lawyers said he would give evidence against Thomas, his friend and fellow dealer, who had not yet stood trial. By co-operating he could expect up to a third off his prison sentence, but he would have to serve his time in a segregated unit to avoid reprisal attacks, not just from friends of the murdered youth but from his own gang.
Thomas's trial ended with a guilty verdict. Brown, Salmon and Thomas were sentenced together, each receiving life sentences with a recommendation that they serve a minimum of 15 years before being considered for parole. Having expected longer sentences, Salmon and Thomas were led away smiling, Salmon saying: "That's nice." To avoid the three turning on Lawrence, he was sentenced later, receiving life with a minimum of 10 years behind bars. None of the killers has expressed any remorse for taking the life of young Jadie Brissett.
Graeme McLagan, the former BBC home affairs correspondent, is the author of Guns and Gangs — Inside Black Gun Crime, published by Allison & Busby, £17.99
