Kevin Gibney whacked Ryan Coburn with a broomstick while disguised as a street sweeper before younger sibling Jack emerged from an alleyway and shot at him
Two brothers have been found guilty of attempted murder after “ambushing” and shooting at their own cousin. Kevin Gibney dressed in hi-vis clothing and pretended to sweep the street while he and his younger sibling Jack Gibney “lain in wait” for their target.
The former then whacked victim Ryan Coburn with his broomstick before the latter emerged from an alleyway and fired a series of gunshots in his direction. But all three bullets missed the man, who then chased his assailants away despite also having a brick hurled at him.
The Gibneys have been on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of attempting to murder Mr Coburn. And they were unanimously found guilty of this charge, and a further count of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, this afternoon, Tuesday.
One woman was seen in tears in the public gallery as the jury of four men and eight women returned their verdicts. The brothers will now be sentenced on September 12, with Judge Stuart Driver KC, who presided over the trial, remanding them into custody until this date.
Jurors heard during the prosecution’s opening last week that the Gibneys and a third man, Callum Smith, “lay in wait” for Mr Coburn on Delamore Street in Walton at around 2pm on February 21 2023, with Kevin Gibney “pretending to be a street sweeper” by carrying a broom while dressed in hi-vis clothing and a balaclava and with an FC Barcelona cap on his head. Jack Gibney was meanwhile said to have been stationed in a nearby alleyway in possession of a loaded firearm.
The 25-year-old, of Lind Street, was earlier captured on camera in a shop on nearby Roxborough Street on the morning of the shooting wearing trousers and trainers matching those worn by the gunman. Both he and Smith meanwhile stopped using their phones around 40 minutes prior to the shooting, with Kevin Gibney thereafter seen on CCTV “peering” around a wall and making “very token efforts” at sweeping the street in the moments beforehand.
Alex Langhorn, prosecuting, told the court that, as Mr Coburn and his friend David Gleeson then neared him on foot, the 34-year-old, of Utting Avenue East in Norris Green, “swung around” and struck the former with the brush, “shattering it into pieces”. Jack Gibney then walked into the middle of the road and adopted a “shooter’s stance” before firing three gunshots in his direction.
A series of loud bangs were heard as jurors were played CCTV footage of the incident, with Mr Langhorn saying of the clip: “Three shots. Not once, not twice, but three times, Jack Gibney fired that gun.
“We will never know why they did not hit Ryan Coburn, whether because Jack Gibney froze in the moment, scared of what he was doing, or that he just wasn’t a particularly good shot, or that he ran out of ammunition. What the crown say is, when you lie in wait with a firearm loaded with live ammunition and you discharge it three times, you can only intend one thing. You can only intend to kill.”
But Mr Coburn was described as being “made of rather sterner stuff” having “given chase, apparently unafraid of the firearm”. Kevin Gibney was alleged to have hurled a brick in his direction as the three assailants ran away down the alleyway with “their ambush having failed”.
Mr Langhorn continued: “The prosecution say that the three men together had planned this ambush, intending to kill Mr Coburn. Why else arm themselves with a firearm? Why else lie in wait? Why else fire not once, not twice, but three times? The only reason this is an attempted murder is because, in the moment, Jack Gibney failed to hit his target.”
With the “plan having failed”, Kevin Gibney was captured riding away along County Road on an e-bike, said to have been identical to one he was seen using on Roxborough Street earlier the same day, before dropping his cap on Wilburn Street. He then “got rid of” his hi-vis clothing before cycling towards his mum’s home address.
Jack Gibney and Smith meanwhile leapt over a fence from the alleyway back onto Carisbrooke Road in the aftermath before fleeing. The former was also seen “wearing a Barcelona cap” on Chepstow Street, “followed shortly thereafter” by his 18-year-old companion.
Following Jack Gibney’s arrest on Lark Lane on March 13, police seized the trainers he had been wearing on the day in question and the electric bike ridden by his brother In his evidence, he told the court that he was alone at his girlfriend’s home on Carisbrooke Road on the day in question.
Asked when he first became aware of the shooting, he said: “As Callum knocked on my back window and I’ve come and answered. He’s knocked on the window in a state and told me that he thinks my brother’s been possibly shot, and could he come in. I’ve said he’s not allowed to come in. He looked scared. He didn’t look normal. He looked scared and out of breath.
“He said, ‘I think your brother, I think he’s been shot’. He didn’t 100 per cent know, but he assumed he’d been shot. He asked if he could come inside. I told him he wasn’t allowed to come in, as it’s not my say so. My first instinct was to go to my mother’s house to see if my brother was there. He lived there at the time.”
Gibney earlier documented how he would routinely enter and exit his girlfriend’s home via the back door, a practice which involved him jumping over a fence in the rear alleyway, as he “wasn’t meant to be present” due to social services involvement with his partner’s children. But the crown alleged that dashcam footage from a waiting taxi of him doing so around five minutes after the shooting captured his escape from the scene.
Kevin Gibney was later detained on March 27 at an address on Whitehall Close in Kirkdale, at which stage he denied being the male in hi-vis under interview and told detectives that they “couldn’t see the face of the man” in the footage. From the witness box, he accepted being the person shown on CCTV after being forensically linked to the items of clothing.
However, he stated that he was dressed in work gear as he wanted to be hired by residents for odd jobs in order to make money for drugs. Gibney went on to state that he had panicked at the sight of the gunman and swung the brush at Mr Coburn as he mistakenly believed that he was part of a group of men who were trying to attack him.
Under cross-examination, he said: “They’ve gone straight for Callum. Callum has shut the entry gate on them. He runs down the entry and gets off leaves me at the scene, gate shut.
“I didn’t know they were behind me. I went to make a run for it. You can see how close they are to me. I lashed out with the brush. If Ryan didn’t hit me back, I would have run. I just acted in impulse and swung the brush and tried to make an exit.
“It was an instinct. I couldn’t really control that. I thought I was in danger. It looks like he runs at me, to be honest. I know there’s no reason for me and Ryan to have done that to each other.
“I love Ryan Coburn. I wish Ryan Coburn was here today so he could tell you the truth. I had an episode of hitting him with a brush by mistake. We’ve had a miscommunication.
“What reason would I have to do that to Ryan? He’s a family friend. He’s like a second cousin. I’ve played footie with him. We play darts together. He’s a childhood friend of mine. If he was here today, he’d tell you straight.”
Smith was held in connection with the investigation when a search warrant was executed at an address on Bordehill Gardens in West Derby on March 28. While the teenager was not present in the dock during the trial, Judge Driver issued jurors with a “stern warning not to speculate” over his absence.
Mr Langhorn added in his opening: “What we say is, once you have heard all of the evidence in this case, you will be sure that these that two men were lying in wait on Delamore Street on the 21st of February 2023, Kevin Gibney peering round from one side of the road, Callum Smith the other, Jack Gibney waiting with the firearm just off shot. When Ryan Coburn arrived, they attempted to kill him.
“They were lying in wait, you can be sure, armed with a lethal firearm. They intended not only to endanger Mr Coburn’s life, but to kill him. Why else fire not once, not twice, but three times? The fact that they failed to kill Mr Coburn was not for the want of trying.”
