Facebook thugs; Gangsters jailed after campaigner collected brazen internet poses.(News)

Byline: Chris Brooke

WITH sickening bravado, these gang members posed proudly with their weapons, posting the photos on the internet.

But the attempt to boost their street image backfired when police used the pictures to send the violent youths to prison.

The members of Sheffield's notorious Parson Cross Crew gang, named after a council estate in the city, were convicted of firearms offences.

The prosecution was made possible by a community campaigner who also used the power of the internet to hit back at the gangsters blamed for ruining the lives of law-abiding residents.

Using the pseudonym Morag Kendo, she searched social networking websites such as Bebo to find dozens of photos of the gang members.

Her findings were published on a Facebook site called 'Sheffield Against Violent Crime: The Parson Cross Crew Named and Shamed', and police were able to use the pictures as evidence.

Among those locked up as a result were Joe Brent-Mitchell, 23, and Jamie Howden, 18, who were both jailed for four and a half years at Sheffield Crown Court for possessing a firearm.

A 17-year-old who was pictured on the internet brandishing a handgun was jailed for three years for possessing a sawn-off shotgun in an offence unrelated to the photograph, and David Faulkner, 20, was jailed for two years for the same crime.

Other shocking gang photos were found on the web following the murder of 18-year-old Dale Robertson in September last year by Parson Cross Crew members.

One of his killers, Reece Mendez, 18, posed brazenly with a spiked baton, knife and knuckle duster, but prosecutors decided not to use the images as 'bad character' evidence in his trial.

Mendez and a 16-year-old fellow gang member were jailed for life at Sheffield Crown Court in April after being found guilty of murder. Superintendent Andy Barrs, who heads South Yorkshire Police's efforts to tackle guns and gangs, said police were 'pushing for legislation around websites', including a specific offence of displaying weapons.

He said: 'The message from us is that anyone who openly parades with weapons on the internet should expect a call, in the form of officers executing an early morning search warrant with forced entry.' 'Morag Kendo' said: 'I got a lot of pictures from public websites, but quite a few were sent to me by people who know these people and had had enough.' Following her success, South Yorkshire Police advertised for a 'gang enforcement team researcher' on a salary of [pounds sterling]18,700 to [pounds sterling]21,300 whose job would include searching websites to find postings by gang members about crimes.

c.brooke@dailymail.co.uk

CAPTION(S):

Jailed for life: Murderer Reece Mendez, 18

Jailed for four and a half years: Joe Brent-Mitchell, pictured on the internet with a shotgun