Postcode gang members jailed for over 20 years for party murders

FIVE MALES who murdered two teenagers while ambushing a birthday party with machetes to attack a rival postcode gang will each serve at least 22 years behind bars.

Childhood friends Dom Ansah and Ben Gillham- Rice, both 17, were stabbed to death at a house in the Emerson Valley area of Milton Keynes in October 2019.

Two others were left with serious but non- life- threatening injuries.

Yesterday Earl Bevans, 23, Charlie Chandler, 23, Clayton Barker, 20, and two previously unnamed teenagers appeared at Luton Crown Court to be sentenced. The two 17- yearolds can now be named as Ben Potter and Jamie Chandler, the brother of Charlie, after Mr Justice Spencer lifted reporting restrictions following an application from the PA news agency.

The judge said Barker, Potter and Jamie Chandler were “enthusiastic” members of the B3 postcode gang and that Charlie Chandler and Bevans, who were not members, closely associated with them.

He said the B3 gang members, named after the MK3 postcode in West Bletchley, planned the revenge attack after being told that members of the rival M4 gang were at the party. The judge said: “The all- too- familiar background to these senseless and tragic killings was rivalry between gangs of young men, and the culture of violence and knives promoted on social media.”

Barker, Potter and the Chandler brothers had denied both murders and two counts of wounding with intent, but were unanimously convicted by the jury after around nine hours of deliberation.

Charlie Chandler, of Fitzwilliam Street, Bletchley, received life with a minimum of 27 years in prison, while Barker, of Surrey Road, Bletchley, was handed a life sentence with a 28- year minimum.

Bevans, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at the start of the trial and was given life with a minimum of 27 years.

Potter, of Chiswick Close, Westcroft, and Chandler, of Woodrush Close, Beanhill, were given a 22- year minimum term in detention.

All five were also given concurrent sentences for the two counts of wounding with intent.

Speaking outside court, Ben’s father Jason Rice said: “Life without Ben for the last 15 months has been absolutely devastating.”