Police are to set up a giant billboard telling potential witnesses that it is safe to come forward after four of Manchester’s most notorious gang members were jailed for armed robbery yesterday.

The poster, to be put up in the heart of a crime-ridden inner-city suburb, will carry photographs of four black “soldiers” for the infamous Gooch gang, blamed for much of the gun violence and drug rivalry in the city in recent years.

Greater Manchester Police has been anxious to get over the message that now they have been locked up it is safe for witnesses to emerge into the community. New powers to protect witnesses within the court system, notably guaranteeing anonymity, were used to secure the convictions.

The billboard will carry the words “Enough is enough” in large letters, followed by the boast: “These convictions prove it — these men thought they were untouchable and above the law. They relied on people being too scared to stand up against them . . . they were wrong.” The four — Errol Junior Reynolds, 20, Laine Williams, 22, Paul Dunn, 18, and Reece Ming, 18, all of Moss Side or Hulme in Manchester — were involved in a string of violent robberies of convenience stores, garages and jewellery stores between August and October 2005.

Detectives from the Manchester force’s Xcalibre Task Force, dedicated to gang-related crime, investigated 28 robberies across Manchester, Bolton and Stockport. The gang were disguised by balaclavas and armed with guns, hammers, iron bars, knives, metal poles and weighted ropes. They were prepared to open fire or use the guns to press up against their victims’ heads or assault them with other weapons or fists.

Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, told them: “Most of the robberies took place under hours of darkness and would instil unimaginable fear in the victims from which many may take a considerable time to recover if, indeed, they do so at all.” For the first time it can be reported that it was Reynolds who shot dead Ramone Cumberbatch, 18, a member of the rival Doddington mob, at his girlfriend’s home in Hulme in September 2005.

It appeared that Cumberbatch’s only “offence” had been to stray into Gooch territory. Cumberbatch had only a short time earlier promised the mother of his newborn baby that he would renounce the gang life.

On the day of the killing, Reynolds pulled a handgun from his waistband and waved it at Cumberbatch, who fled indoors. Moments later Reynolds fired several shots through the kitchen door, hitting his victim in the chest.

Reynolds was convicted in a trial which allowed witnesses who feared for their safety to give evidence anonymously, and is now serving a 30-year jail sentence for murder. He was sentenced to a further 45 months yesterday, to run concurrently, for robbery. Williams is already in jail for attempted murder. He was sentenced to ten years yesterday, also to run concurrently. Dunn was jailed for eight years yesterday for robbery while Ming received an indefinite sentence yesterday but was told he must serve at least five years. Also featured on the poster is Malachi Reynolds, 27, Reynolds’s older brother, who was sentenced earlier to seven years in jail after he threatened a mother of two with a gun and snatched her car.

Members of the Gooch gang have been blamed for the unsolved murder of the 15-year-old Jessie James, who was shot as he rode through a public park last September.

Superintendent John O’Hare, of the Manchester force, said: “We are showing the community what we can do if we stand together and today’s result is a proven success.

“Reynolds thought that no one would bring evidence against him. He was wrong. Witnesses did come forward and he was convicted. We hope this will encourage other witnesses to come forward in other cases, including the murder of Jessie James.

“The poster and billboard will serve as a reality check. I hope that young people will see it and will not want to be on it. These offenders are in prison during the years they should be enjoying themselves. That is reality and that’s not attractive.”

Bev Knott, the mother of Cumberbatch, said it was a relief publicly to identify her son’s killer. She said: “I owe the witnesses everything. Without them I do not know where I would be today. I could still be waiting for justice. It is these offenders who are bringing our community down, but now it is time to stop. It is time to put guns down.”

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