East End teen jailed over gun and machete gang war has sentence cut

Isaac Bello, 18, of Prospect Road in Woodford Green, was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this month over his role in an armed gang war in Southend.  

But in a short hearing at Basildon Crown Court on Friday (July 25), Judge Samantha Cohen said the sentence had been “unlawful”.

Bello was one of ten East End gang members caught and prosecuted after they clashed in broad daylight during last year’s school summer holidays with knives, machetes and a gun.

A two-day sentencing hearing was told the incident cost Southend businesses “millions and millions of pounds” in lost custom, with some going bust as a result.

Bello, a member of Newham’s Northside gang, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and possessing a bladed article in a public place.

He failed to show up for the first day of sentencing hearing because he found it too “traumatic”.

When he showed up for the second day, he launched an unprovoked attack on a member of rival Southside gang in the dock.

At Basildon Crown Court on Friday, Judge Cohen said she had to “correct what was an unlawful sentence”.

“With the number of other defendants that were in front of me, I failed to really appreciate the significance of the fact that Isaac Bello was 17 not only when he committed the offence, but also when he pleaded guilty,” she said.

“That has a consequence, which is that I am restricted to passing a detention and training order only, not youth detention.

“Because of the 20% credit that I afforded him in relation to his guilty plea, the appropriate sentence that I should have passed for Isaac was the maximum that I could with appropriate credit, which would be a 19-month detention and training order.”

Bello had been caught with a knife in a second, unrelated incident a year before the Southend brawl, which saw one gang fire a gun at the other outside the Forum library.

He had received a referral order for the previous incident – meaning no custody.

“Can you confirm that there are no other young defendants who fall into this category?” Judge Chen asked Gregory Wedge, who prosecuted the 10 gang members.

“It seems to be only Mr Bello that this applies to,” Mr Wedge confirmed.