Nine people have been found guilty of murder
A community hit by a drugs war which spiralled out of control and led to the killing of an innocent man have spoken out on how their area has rebuilt. The murder of businessman Michael Anton O'Connor still sends shivers down the spine of local residents in The Meadows - and neighbours living in the area remember waking to police cordons on November, 2021.
Rebecca Bell, 36, of Loughrigg Close, The Meadows, and Curtis Sheard, 23, of Wilford Crescent West, The Meadows, were acquitted of murder. Those connected to the existing drugs lines - the "MI Line" and "White House Line" - which supplied heroin and crack cocaine - were not prepared to give them up without a fight. But the takeover of those lines was enforced with shocking violence. Drug workers were attacked, defendants threatened, guns were pulled in the family home of Carla McGuire in Wilford Crescent West, The Meadows, where her son Michael McGuire lived.
But the rival dealer did not go to the meet - it was an unarmed Michael Anton O'Connor, 31, from Alexandra Park, sent in at the last minute - and he was the victim of the armed ambush that followed, the stabbing claiming his young life. "It was a tragedy when Anton died. We grew up together as children. Then he moved out of the area", he added.
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