Matthew Donkin, leading Oliver Connor, successfully prosecute a summer of violence in Stockton-on-Tees

Over the summer of 2025 a wave of gang-related violence swept through Stockton-on-Tees. Three separate incidents in the Stockton area in May and June of last year were successfully prosecuted at Teesside Crown Court by Matthew Donkin, in his last series of trials before being appointed King’s Counsel, and Oliver Connor instructed by the Complex Crime Unit of the Crown Prosecution Service.

In May 2025, a Defendant travelled to the Tilery Estate in Stockton and acted as part of a group in an orchestrated violent attack on local residents. The Defendant travelled to an address in a stolen vehicle where he used an improvised slam-gun style firearm to shoot at unsuspecting residents stood outside in their garden. The firearm was recovered some weeks later having been discarded in some nearby bushes. The Defendant was convicted of two offences of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and one offence of possessing a prohibited firearm. He was sentenced by HHJ Carroll to a total of 15 years imprisonment.

In response to this shooting and others, a month later a group travelled in a vehicle around Stockton in the dead of night lighting fires. On 02 June 2025, a group started the first fire at a scrapyard before travelling to the home address of the scrapyard owner and setting fire to a caravan parked on the driveway. One man was convicted for his role in the offences of arson and arson being reckless as to whether life is endangered and received a sentence of 14 years custody.

Later in June 2025, a group of three attended an address in the small hours of the morning and fired a shotgun style firearm into an occupied property associated with drug dealing. Two members of the group, a male and female, faced trial and were each convicted by a jury of one offence of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. They were sentenced by HHJ Wadoodi in March 2026 to 17 years and 13 years imprisonment, respectively.

Read more about the cases in the below press coverage:

Slam-gunman jailed for 15 years for firing at trio in ‘targeted’ Stockton garden attack

Lengthy sentences for duo after shotgun fired through Stockton house door in drugs turf war

Arsonist who torched storage yard in Port Clarence jailed

Authors

Matthew Donkin KC

Call 2004 | Silk 2026

Oliver Connor

Call 2017

Related areas

Crime

---