The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
SHOOTING PLOT MOTHER JAILED
Mary Egan joins daughters behind bars over her part in conspiracy to shoot rival’s son in a revenge attack
SHOOTING plot mother Mary Egan has joined her daughters and former partner behind bars for her part in conspiracy to blast a teenager with a shotgun.
Five people were jailed last year for the revenge attack in Newcastle’s West End as two gun-toting families clashed following a falling-out over a woman.
When Leon Haq was sent to prison, he trusted Kenneth Thompson to look after his girlfriend, Adele Bell, until he was released.
However, Thompson and Miss Bell grew close and ended up in a relationship, which contributed to ill-feeling between the two men.
As tensions soared, Thompson punched the head of the Tams family, Thomas Tams, and carried out a drive-by shooting on his daughter’s car.
Leon Haq, along with Barry Lynn, Thomas Tams and his daughters, Kerry and Charlotte Tams, were convicted last year of plotting to carry out a revenge shooting.
Egan, of Hawthorn Walk, Newcastle, had to shield during the trial of the others last year but has now been convicted of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. He was jailed for four and a half years.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Haq and Lynn were driven to a location in the West End of Newcastle by Kerry Tams, where the two men got out and opened fire with a shotgun, hitting Thompson’s 18-year-old son, Kane Thompson, in the knee.
It was after the shooting that Egan played a “significant role” involving a mysterious trip to Gateshead.
Sentencing the 48-year-old, Judge Julie Clemitson said: “As soon as the shooting took place, a call was made from the car as they left the scene of the shooting to Charlotte Tams’s phone.
“As a result, you set off immediately in your car to go to Swalwell, where I can only assume you met up with them and that some agreement was made for you to go on some mission through to Gateshead.
“The jury rejected your account that you were going to Gateshead to pick up your daughter and while that journey has not been satisfactorily explained, it’s clear it was part of this conspiracy.
“You were on some mission to do some job to clear up after the shooting. It was necessary to burn out your car afterwards to hide the evidence. Whatever it was, it was a significant part of the overall plan you were responsible for.”
Paul Cross, for Egan, said: “This defendant is a relatively minor player compared with the people who did the shooting. She suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and has anxiety and depression.”
It was in the early hours of August 6, 2019 that Kenneth Thompson was in a car that drove onto Gloucester Way, Elswick, and fired at least five bullets at a car belonging to a different daughter of Thomas Tams.
Thompson previously pleaded guilty to offences in relation to the shooting of the Dacia Duster and was jailed for six years.
The weapon he used and ammunition was found at the bottom of the River Tyne.
A few hours after that shooting, Thompson’s son, 18-year-old Kane, was shot in revenge.
While Thomas Tams was in police custody, police bugged his house and incriminating conversations with his daughter, Kerry Tams, were recorded. Thomas Tams said to Kerry Tams: “Kerry I’m f ****** sorry. I’m gonna lose you. I’m gonna lose me grandson and everything for it.”
Tams then says to his daughter: “It was Token’s [Kenneth Thompson’s] laddie that you plugged that night.”
In another extract from the covert recording, Thomas Tams says: “Kerry do we kna where it is.”
She says “where is the” and he says “is it safe away though?”. She replies: “I don’t know dad...i had it.”
The court heard prosecutors could not say Kane was deliberately shot and Haq and Lynn were cleared of wounding with intent.
Haq, 39, of Eastbourne Avenue, Walker; Lynn, 40, of no fixed address; Thomas Tams, 60, of Union Quay, North Shields; Kerry Tams, 26, of Silvermere Drive, Ryton, Gateshead; and Charlotte Tams, 20, of Hawthorn Walk, Newcastle, were locked up last November for a total of more than 34 years.
Haq and Lynn pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent and wounding while Haq also admitted two counts of threats to kill – towards Adele Bell and Thompson.
Head of the family Thomas Tams, who killed his own brother in the 1990s and was jailed for three years for manslaughter, was found guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, as were his daughters, Kerry and Charlotte.
Haq was jailed for 10 years, Lynn got nine years, Thomas Tams sixand a half years, Kerry Tams six years and Charlotte Tams three years.
Richard Bloomfield, for Lynn, said no serious harm was caused and that the gun was discharged from up to 30 yards away and the intention was to frighten.
Rod Hunt, for Haq, said he was “unable to cope” with what he suspected was going on between Thompson and Adele Bell and added that his reaction was triggered by the way he was “dragged up” as a child.
Tom Mitchell, for Thomas Tams, said: “He did not leave the house with the gun. He is an old man who’s not well and has not been well for some time.”
Glenn Gatland, for Kerry Tams, said the single mum was motivated by loyalty to her tight-knit family after Kenneth Thompson had assaulted her dad on his doorstep.
He added that she remained in the car during the shooting.
Tony Hawks, for Charlotte Tams, said she had previously avoided the “malign influence of her family” but loyalty to her family “took her in its grip”. He added that her role appeared to be limited to passing messages on and said “her life is in ruins”.