‘Acid attack and stabbings part of turf war between drug gangs’

A MAN had acid thrown in his face and two men suffered stab injuries during a drugs turf war in a Yorkshire spa town.

A court heard the attacks were part of a recent phenomenon known as “county lines” dealing in which drug traffickers try to expand their markets from big cities to smaller towns.

Jurors were told how gang members are prepared to use “extreme violence” to gain a foothold in local markets and chase out established dealers.

Leeds Crown Court heard victim Barry Gourlay had a corrosive substance sprayed in his face during a street attack in Harrogate.

Later on the same evening, October 20 last year, Leeds drug dealer Audley Mascoll and his driver, Carl Heptonstall, were stabbed repeatedly and attacked with pepper spray at a house on Skipton Road.

The court heard how Heptonstall was stabbed 12 times to the chest and back, suffering a collapsed lung. He also suffered stab wounds and bone damage to his right leg and needed extensive surgery as a result.

Mascoll also received multiple stab wounds in the attack.

Mohammed Adbi, Abdirahman Shire and Julian Soares are on trial accused of attempted murder, wounding with intent, administering poison and conspiracy to supply cocaine. Soares is also charged with conspiracy to supply heroin.

Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, said the background to the attacks was a “county lines” operation targeting Harrogate.

Organisers of the operation were based in London and had a connection to Leicester.

Mr Sharp said those organisers used a mobile phone as a single point of contact known as the H Line and were sending out messages to 90 customers.

By late September of last year, the operation had begun to establish itself in the town.

The prosecutor said all three defendants went to the house on Skipton Road on October 20 in order to deliver drugs.

“They were armed with at least one knife, which Abdi had in a sheath under his tracksuit bottoms, with a pepper spray, and with a bottle containing some sort of corrosive or irritant liquid,” he said.

“It is apparent, both from their being armed and from their actions that night, that they were intent on violence.”

Jurors heard their first act of violence was against Gourlay. Mr Sharp said: “They challenged him, saying he was a rival dealer nicknamed ‘Leicestershire Chris’. They then sprayed the liquid in his face. Mr Gourlay immediately called 999 and described what had happened to him.”

The prosecution claims all three men then attacked Mascoll and Heptonstall back at the house on Skipton Road.

Mascoll was in possession of a wallet containing wraps of heroin and cocaine when he turned up at the house, the court heard.

Mr Sharp said: “Heptonstall received injuries that were lifethreatening and the attack on him was of such severity and intensity that the defendants’ joint intention, in that moment, can only have been to kill him.”

Heptonstall and Mascoll fought back during the attack. Adbi suffered a punctured lung and an ambulance had to be called for him.

Abdi, 25, of Tower Street, Leicester; Shire, 22, of Oak Street, Leicester, and Soares, 23, of Brixton, London, deny all charges.

The trial continues.