SHE has won international acclaim beyond her wildest dreams, drawing comparisons with Beyoncé on the stage and Naomi Campbell.

Until yesterday, the extent of Jamelia’s family connections with Britain’s gangland underworld had only been hinted at by the singer. She has gone on to become the soul diva of her generation.

It was revealed last night that one of her brothers is already serving a life sentence after leading a “hunting pack” of gangsters who shot dead an innocent teenager.Tumbi Beckford, 21, Jamelia’s half-brother and a violent drug-dealer, was jailed in November for his role in shooting a 19-year-old man three times at close range as children walked by in a Birmingham suburb known as the “Concrete Jungle”.

Beckford, a member of Birmingham’s “Burger Boys” gang who revelled in the nickname “Muscles”, was sentenced to at least 18 years for the murder of Daniel Bogle, who was shot dead as he spoke to friends in August 2003.

He was shot by four masked gunmen after he was mistakenly identified as a member of a rival gang and wrongly accused of cheating Beckford and his colleagues in a cocaine deal.

Restrictions on the reporting of Beckford’s case were lifted yesterday after the end of a separate trial in Leicester, in which another member of Jamelia’s extended family was on trial for murder.

The six-month trial at Leicester Crown Court, at a cost of at least £2 million, saw some of Birmingham’s “untouchable” gang leaders face damning testimony from within their own community after the court granted an unprecedented level of protection to key witnesses.

Tafarwa Beckford, Jamelia’s step-brother, faced two charges of murder and three of attempted murder over the killing of Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare. The 22-year-old, known as “Charmer”, was cleared last month when Mr Justice Goldring ruled that the only evidence against him was that of a single uncorroborated witness.

The jury was never told of Beckford’s links to Jamelia, who shot to fame with hits such as Thank You — about a former boyfriend who abused her — and Stop.

Tumbi Beckford was convicted at Birmingham Crown Court last autumn of being the leader of a “joint enterprise” to murder Mr Bogle.

Beckford has a string of convictions, including possessing a specially modified pen designed to fire .22 calibre bullets. Four years ago he was cleared of the murder of Stephen Clinton, 38, who was shot in a block of flats.

Jamelia’s father, Donald Williams, 45, is a convicted robber. Tafarwa Beckford, her step-brother, was hit recently in a drive-by shooting in Birmingham, but escaped serious injury. Another step-brother, Tessfa Beckford, 24, was also arrested over the murders of Miss Ellis and Miss Shakespeare, but was released without charge.

Nine years ago Tafarwa, then 15, and another step- brother, Tacuma Beckford, 14, were charged over the alleged gang-rape of two girls. They pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit indecent assault and were each sentenced to an 18-month supervision order. Jamelia, herself a single mother by the age of 20, has rarely spoken about her past, although she has spoken about her devastation at the murder of another step-brother. Tesrod Beckford was 15 when he was stabbed through the heart in a row over a girl; Jamelia, now 24, was 13.

After the murders of Miss Shakespeare and Miss Ellis the Government announced a gun amnesty that led to more than 25,000 weapons being handed to police and the introduction of five-year sentences for firearms possession. Despite a lull after the killings, with the rival gangs driven further underground, there has been a renewed escalation of violence over the past 18 months.

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