Charlene and Letisha murders: Gun used in Aston shootings recovered

Mar 3 2009 by Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail

A MACHINE gun used in the New Year party shootings which left two young women dead has been recovered in Liverpool, it emerged today.

The MAC-10 machine pistol was handed in at a police station in November 2007 during a firearms crackdown that followed the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones.

Scientific tests by experts at a new firearms forensic unit linked it to the shooting by comparing it with ballistic material recovered from the scene of the murders of Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare in January 2003.

It was not the machine pistol that fired the fatal burst of shots which killed Charlene, 18, and Letisha, 17, outside the New Year’s Day party at the Uniseven salon, Aston, but it revealed to police two MAC-10s were used in the shooting.

Tests also linked it to other crimes in both Birmingham and Manchester.