A CONVICTED murderer has been found guilty of planting a grenade outside a house in Orford where four children were sleeping upstairs.

An explosive device was placed under a car on the drive of a family home on Cleveland Avenue late one night in February last year in a feud between rival gangs, which also saw alleged crime boss Leon Cullen’s BMW torched.

This afternoon, Monday, William ‘Billy’ Jones has been found guilty of conspiring to possess explosives in connection with the incident following a month-long trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Warrington Guardian:

Billy Jones outside Warrington Magistrates Court aged 13

But co-defendants Robert Musson, Wesley Williamson and Kyle Stewart were all found unanimously not guilty of the same charge this morning after around six hours of deliberations.

The jury heard that an anonymous 999 call was made from a phone box on Knutsford Road in Latchford at around 12.30am on Saturday, February 24 2018, alerting police to the hand grenade.

It had been alleged by the prosecution that 33-year-old Musson, of Biggin Court in Padgate, had made the one minute and 27 second-call – in which the operator was told that the explosive was ‘something to do with a man called Shaun Smith’.

Officers attended the scene and found a grenade with a pin in it underneath a white Vauxhall Insignia, and a bomb disposal squad was called.

All properties within 50m were evacuated, with residents taken to the nearby McDonald’s on Winwick Road for shelter.

Twenty-nine-year-old Jones’ DNA was found on the pin of the grenade before a controlled explosion was carried out on nearby wasteland.

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Warrington Guardian:

A hole in the ground left by the controlled explosion

The incident sparked a police investigation codenamed Operation Fullbacks, which found the explosive was linked to a series of crimes following on from the arrests of the Cullen drugs gang in January 2018 – when more than 50kg of drugs were seized.

Members of the cocaine racket were jailed for a total of 185 years in January 2019, including head Anthony Cullen – who was handed 27 years behind bars.

His twin brother Leon Cullen managed to evade police and remains at large, believed to have fled the county.

A series of targeted attacks following the dismantling of the organised crime group began on Wednesday, February 21 2018, when Smithy’s Gym in Bewsey was ‘completely ravaged’ by fire.

The Bewsey Road gym – owned by Shaun Smith, star of Netflix series Bare Knuckle Fight Club and Vice documentary the UK’s Scariest Debt Collector – had been the victim of an arson attack.

Then at around 8.15am on Friday, February 23 2018 – the day leading up the grenade being planted – two bricks were thrown through the kitchen window of a house on Honister Avenue in Orford where Leon Cullen lived with his partner.

Later that night, at around 7.30pm, a BMW on the driveway of the same property was set on fire.

The prosecution had claimed that 31-year-old Stewart, of Greenwood Crescent in Orford, and 31-year-old Williamson, of Grasmere Avenue in Orford, were linked to the grenade by mobile phone contact.

But Stewart walked free from court after being found not guilty of conspiracy to supply explosives.

Williamson and Musson were also acquitted of the same charge, but had previously admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and remain in custody awaiting sentence.

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Thirty-one-year-old co-defendant Utku Tig, from Runcorn, will be sentenced alongside them having also admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine.

However, Jones was convicted of conspiring to supply explosives by a majority of 11 to one.

He again faces a lengthy prison sentence, having previously served 10 years for the murder of Michael Theaker at the age of 16.

Jones, alongside brothers Colin and David Algie, kicked and stamped on the 22-year-old dad-to-be after picking a fight with him on the number 21 bus in 2006 and was later jailed for 10 years.

His family were seen to be in tears in the dock when the guilty verdict was read out, while Jones himself left the courtroom and headed down to the cells.

He is due to be sentenced back at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday morning.