A gifted schoolboy who had won a scholarship to a £12,000-a-year private school has been sentenced to life in prison after being hired by a drug lord to kill a rival gang leader.
At the end of an eight-month trial – one of the longest in English legal history – Michael Mingoes, was convicted for the murder of Michael O'Connor in November 2021. He will serve a minimum of 28 years behind bars.
The bright 21-year-old had been hired to kill the rival gang leader over a county lines network worth more than £1million a year.
Eight others were also convicted of murder, but it was Mingoes who delivered the fatal blow, thrusting a knife into O'Connor's heart.
During the trial at Nottingham Crown Court, it emerged that he had attended St Bede's College, a Catholic school in Whalley Range, Manchester, and appeared to have a bright future ahead of him.
Michael O'Connor (pictured) was murdered outside a pub in Nottingham after being mistaken for a rival gang boss
Michael Mingoes (pictured) delivered the fatal blow to Mr O'Connor, stabbing him in the heart
While sentencing, Mr Justice Turner referenced his intelligence and maturity, adding that he had a 'mental agility and cunning well beyond [his] years'.
The court heard how 31-year-old O'Connor, who had been acting as a peacemaker between two gangs, was killed by mistake. Mingoes, who was 19 at the time, and his associates thought that he was the drug lord they had been tasked with killing.
A dispute between the two gangs first surfaced after a crime boss in Nottingham tried to take control of a profitable Class A drug line from Leonard Ward, 41, and Jerome Sheard, 30, when he was freed from prison.
Ward and Sheard, who were handed life sentences with minimum terms of 32 and 31 years respectively, contacted their supplier in Manchester, 37-year-old Benjamin Taylor – a man described in court as 'steeped in a history of extreme violence'.
They put together a hit squad to carry out the planned attack, made up of Taylor's drug dealers. Taylor was also sentenced to life.
Mingoes and three others were picked for 'their size, sheer aggression and/or willingness to use weapons', it was heard.
The gang agreed to meet with the rival gang leader at the Poets Corner pub in Nottingham, but instead they were sent O'Connor, a cosmetics clinic owner.
The balaclava-clad gang ambushed him outside of the pub and savagely stabbed him to death.
While Mingoes, Ward, Sheard and Taylor have been sentenced, five others are also due to find out how long they will serve this week.
Mingoes had been hired to kill the rival gang leader over a county lines network worth more than £1million a year. When they agreed to meet the gang leader, it was Mr O'Connor (pictured), a cosmetic clinic owner, who turned up
Ward (left) and Sheard (right) were handed life sentences with minimum terms of 32 and 31 years respectively
Benjamin Taylor was described in court as being 'steeped in a history of extreme violence'.
Mingoes told the trial that he had grown up in a rough part of Trafford, an inner city borough of Manchester, but won the scholarship to St Bede's College when he was 11.
The academically gifted pupil achieved As in his GCSEs before moving to Xaverian College – a Catholic sixth form where he was hoping to study business A-level.
Mingoes eventually left home after encountering problems, which he says were caused by his ADHD, and the fact his father was suffering with cancer.
He was soon introduced to drug dealing by the man who would ultimately hire him for the Nottingham murder.
In sentencing, the judge told him: 'I am satisfied that you were the lowest in the pecking order, a relative youth... but you demonstrated in the witness box that you had a maturity that belied your age.'
When giving evidence, Mingoes was scolded by the judge for his verbosity and told to speak in plainer English after claiming he had been 'subjected to a barrage of beratement' by two co-defendants as they fled the scene in a car.
O'Connor's family have told how they were left 'feeling sick' after one of their son's nine murderers taunted them in the public gallery.
Paula Usherwood used her car as a weapon to block their son's every attempt at escape, before he was fatally wounded.
On Wednesday, a statement revealed the family's reaction to the hurtful words shouted from the dock.
'To Paula Usherwood, on June 8, you shouted to the family in the public gallery, "at least I'm not walking around with a picture of my dead son on my T-shirt, I'm still alive and got my family around me".
Paula Usherwood (pictured) used her car as a weapon to block their son's every attempt at escape, before he was fatally wounded
The nine defendants who were found guilty of murder of murdering Michael Anton O'Connor
'A heinous act which left our family feeling sick to their stomach at the lack of remorse shown by this defendant,' they said. 'We cannot fathom how someone could be so flagrantly audacious, atrocious and hateful towards the victim's family,' they added.
'At times our family were made to feel like we were on trial, an unwelcome spotlight, rather than the victim's family.'
They added: 'Joseph Boscombe, on June 12, the jury found him guilty of the murder of our son. He showed no remorse and instead chose to make threats to kill our remaining son in open court.
'Imagine hearing the murderer of one son threaten the other. Words cannot described the heartache and devastation.'
After all four minimum terms were delivered, Mr and Mrs O'Connor said: 'We feel justice has been administered in terms of the sentences passed so far. We appreciate the time and care in considering each defendant and appropriateness of sentence.'
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