An “extremely dangerous” gang leader who conspired to blind people with acid has been convicted of an attack that left a man with life-threatening injuries.
Jonathan Gordon, a member of Liverpool’s ruthless Deli Mob, was charged £ 6,000 for an acid attack and £ 10,000 for blinding someone, the National Crimes Agency (NCA) said.
The 34-year-old received instructions from the head of an organized crime group (OCG) who said he wanted to “cook” a victim and that another target “needs a good liter on him”.
Gordon almost permanently blinded the victim of the acid attack and planned another attack on a man on a property where a grenade was discovered in the front garden.
He also took part in three shootings, including one that blew up the bedroom window of the home of an elderly couple.
The acid attack occurred in April 2019 when the victim left his home in St Helens, Merseyside, to get a charger from his car.
Gordon was waiting for him and threw a bowl of acid in his face.
The victim, who was blinded but regained her sight months later after medical treatment, chose Gordon as the attacker in an identity parade.
Messages on the EncroChat platform showed that Gordon, a convicted drug dealer who used the Valuedbridge handle, was taking instructions from the head of the unidentified crime.
He and Gordon planned a second acid attack on a man in Blackpool – with the head of crime saying the victim “needs a good liter on it” – and a third attack on a man in Warrington.
The head of the crime wanted to “cook” the victim with acid
Blackpool’s attack was canceled because it was during the first blockade and criminals were worried that police would detect their stolen car.
Warrington’s proposed attack saw Gordon and his accomplices, Dylan Johnston and Stephen Wissett, drive a stolen Ford Fiesta on the property of a man on whom they planned to throw acid.
They abandoned the attack in April 2020 after seeing that the house had CCTV and decided to return the next day in disguise.
But the next day, the three criminals were approached by patrol officers in Liverpool and fled in a hurry, and police seized the stolen car.
The crime boss was not discouraged by the failed offer and wanted Gordon to return to the Warrington property and “double the dose” and “cook” the intended victim with acid.
Image: NCA investigators discovered through EncroChat messages that a grenade was dropped outside the house of a target. Photo file
The grenade went off target
Police and NCA investigators discovered through EncroChat messages that a grenade had been left in the front yard of the Warrington house and organized the bomb squad to carry out a controlled explosion.
Because of this, the OCG stopped the acid attack because it was obvious that law enforcement had been involved.
Gordon still spoke of the planned acid attack, saying to his boss, “You’re going blind, brother.”
EncroChat messages also showed that Gordon had been involved in a street shooting in January 2020 with an unknown man, and told his boss that he “dropped a clip on the street.”
Gordon was involved in another fight with an unknown striker in Liverpool in May 2020.
The bullet went through the window of an elderly couple
A man had approached him on an electric bicycle and they exchanged fire, with a bullet from Gordon’s pistol passing through the bedroom window of the home of an elderly couple.
Gordon also took part in a plot to fire a property in Warrington in March 2020.
He and his accomplice Johnston organized a team to blow up the windows of the house in a shootout.
Following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Gordon was found guilty of three counts of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm; two charges of having a firearm with intent to endanger life and one of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Johnston, 27, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, was convicted of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
Wissett, 28, also from Ellesmere Port, had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit GBH.
“I didn’t think to blind the victims for money”
NCA operations manager Ben Rutter said the victim of the acid attack “suffered life-threatening injuries and the physical and mental cost of his attack cannot be overstated.”
“Jonathan Gordon is an extremely dangerous criminal,” Rutter added.
“His actions were exceptionally perverse, he thought nothing of blinding the victims for money.
“He caused a high level of damage to the streets as in charge of his OCG and it is fortunate that no one died in his chaotic and reckless use of firearms.”
Gordon, Johnston and Wissett will be sentenced on June 15.