Gun used to shoot boy, 7, and his mum on their doorstep ‘found hidden in bag alongside three teddy bears’
Christian Hickey and his mother were both shot when two men arrived at their door demanding to speak the boy's father
THE gangsters' gun used to shoot a seven-year-old boy and his mother last year was found by police hidden inside a bag of teddy bears, a court has heard.
Tests later proved the Heckler and Koch pistol was the weapon responsible for the shooting during a gang feud in Salford last year.
Jayne Hickey and her son, Christian, suffered leg wounds in the targeted attack at their family home in Salford last October.
It was among a spate of shootings after the city's "Mr Big" Paul Massey was shot dead three months earlier.
Last November, Christian Hickey wrote a letter to Santa asking him to "help the police catch the people who hurt me".
Two men had confronted him and mother, Jayne, 29, when they opened their door and one of the assailants fired a number of shots at close range after a brief conversation in which they reportedly asked for the boy's father, Christian Hickey senior.
No-one has been charged over the shooting.
But on December 15, Christopher Hall, 46, was caught with the 9mm pistol and a Baikal 9mm self-loading pistol, equipped with a silencer, when he was stopped by police in Cheshire.
Both weapons were not loaded but were in working order when they were moved from an unknown location at the request of an organised criminal or gang, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Tests later showed the weapons had been used in a total of nine shootings in Liverpool.
Aldair Warmington, 29, was shown to have co-ordinated Hall's taxi journey by mobile phone after he earlier visited his co-defendant's home.
Sentencing the pair to prison, Judge Richard Mansell QC said: "The fact they (the guns) have been used demonstrate they were being moved to a criminal gang operating in the Cheshire area, more likely the Liverpool area, and were most likely to be used again.
Warmington was jailed for six years and Hall jailed for five years after pleading guilty to two counts of possessing a prohibited firearm.
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