Jailed gunman’s young son ‘joins list of victims’ – judge
JAMIE Bridge was jailed for 24 years for carrying out a shocking double shooting on the streets of Southport – but the hardest sentence he will face may be not being able to be with his young son.
The 22-year-old thug showed no emotion as he was sentenced to 24 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of attempted murder while his girlfriend, Julia Minicka, wept in the public gallery.
The sentence means the young father will serve at least two-thirds of the 24 years – 16 years – behind bars.
Charles Lander, defending, said he did not seek to minimise his client’s behaviour that day or the “terror” he caused.
“It’s through fortune your honour may say to the defendant that he’s not facing a charge of murder.”
He said that he again apologised to Mr Armstrong, the bus driver who was inadvertently shot, and the other people that were there.
Mr Lander accepted “the court may take the view he wasn’t thinking of them at the time”.
The lawyer pointed out that Bridge does not have any previous convictions for violence or firearms.
He was 21 at the time of the shooting. But he is now beginning a very lengthy spell in prison away from his son, whom he saw regularly.
Mr Lander said that this “hits hard” to the defendant and he would have to reflect on it.
Judge Watson, QC, sentencing, said Bridge was a dangerous offender and that there was “a significant risk to members of the public”.
He said: “You chose to pursue an armed vendetta against a rival drug dealer on the streets of a town that was busy with shoppers and families days before Christmas.
“Against a background of escalating threats and violence where one of your drug dealers had been stabbed days earlier, you equipped yourself with a firearm and ammunition and sought out Christopher Jopson, you confronted him in broad daylight, chased him up Eastbank Street and then discharged the sawn-off shotgun at him in the middle of Christmas shoppers, families and town centre workers.
“Purely by chance he was not killed, for it was your intention to kill him.
“Purely by chance only one further individual received gunshot wounds.”
He said he bore in mind he would be separated from his child, but his son joined the list of those affected by his crime.
The judge said: “You conducted a turf war, in a town centre, in the middle of the day, four days before Christmas, in a street busy with shoppers, families and town centre workers.
“It was an utterly brazen offence.”