A man has been jailed for 34 years over his role in a gangland shooting that left a nine-year-old girl with a bullet lodged in her brain.

Javon Riley, 33, was convicted last month of causing grievous bodily harm with intent after the girl was hit in the head by the first of six bullets fired from a passing motorbike at a restaurant on Kingsland High Street, Dalston, last May.

Riley was also sentenced over the attempted murder of three men – Mustafa Kiziltan, Kenan Aydogdu, and Nasser Ali – who were sitting at tables outside the Evin Restaurant.

The gunman and weapon used in the shooting in east London have never been found.

Sentencing him on Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC said the gang rivalry had seen a number of “tit for tat” murders and attempted murders in London and overseas over the past 10 years.

The three men who were shot were said to be affiliated with the Hackney Turks organised crime gang, who had a rivalry with the Tottenham Turks, with whom Riley had links, jurors had heard.

The gunman remains at large but prosecutors said Riley had played a “key role” before, during and after the shooting.

Riley carried out reconnaissance of the restaurant before the attack, scouted for potential targets and drove the gunman away in a stolen car, which was later burnt out.

The nine-year-old girl spent three months in hospital and will suffer with lifelong physical and cognitive problems as the bullet remains lodged in her brain.

The three adult male victims received gunshot wounds to the arm, leg and thigh.

Scotland Yard has offered up to £15,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the person who fired the shots.

During a three-week trial, Riley was asked to identify the “third party” who had recruited him for around £40,000.

He refused, citing fear for his life and that of his family.

Riley admitted conducting reconnaissance, spotting targets and picking up the gunman, but claimed he believed it was a “smash-and-grab” robbery.

Riley later admitted the person who used the gun had said to him: “Shots have been fired. I need to get out of here.”

The court heard Jamaica-born, who was born in Jamaica, had a string of convictions dating back to 2008.

They include possession of cannabis and cocaine, driving offences and having an offensive weapon and a blade in his car.

He also admitted involvement in car theft, drug dealing and robberies, but said he had never been caught for those offences.

Police recordings revealed Riley’s links to the Tottenham Turks, including talks about Izzet Eren, who was shot in Moldova on 10 July last year in what was believed to be a revenge attack.

Det Ch Insp Joanna Yorke said: “Riley will face the consequences of his actions behind bars. Actions that traumatically derailed the life of a little girl.

“While this outcome is a reminder that justice can be served, it will never undo the suffering caused to her or her family.”

In a statement shared after Riley’s conviction last month, the mother of the nine-year-old girl said: “In a single moment, the future we had imagined for our daughter was torn away. She was once an energetic, adventurous child — everything that celebrated movement, energy, and life.

“Now, weakness on her left side means she can only watch from the sidelines, living with a titanium plate in her skull and a bullet still in her brain.”

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander has said Labour MPs will be feeling “despondent” following a chaotic week which has seen the sacking of Lord Mandelson and the resignation of Angela Rayner.

Sir Keir Starmer is facing questions over why he appointed Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US despite his known links to the convicted paedophile Jeffery Epstein.

The government said Mandelson was dismissed after emails were published which appear to show the Labour peer offering Epstein support after his conviction.

MPs and government insiders are increasingly blaming the prime minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney for the appointment.

Several senior Labour figures claimed that McSweeney had been resisting the inevitability of Mandelson’s departure on Wednesday, with one insider describing “cold, hard fury” amongst those in Downing Street about the episode.

However, another senior Downing Street source claimed this was nonsense, saying that by Wednesday afternoon McSweeney was adamant that Mandelson’s position was untenable.

A government minister said they were “starting to wonder how sustainable it is” for McSweeney to stay in post.

One Labour MP said: “Panic has started to set in”, urging the prime minister to “get a grip” and warning that only publishing correspondence between No 10, McSweeney and Lord Mandelson before his appointment as ambassador would “put this to bed”.

Another Labour MP said “It’s quite clear the buck should stop with him [McSweeney].

“When Sue Gray was chief of staff [Mandelson] wasn’t even on the short list. It’s just disgusting.”

One other said the handling of the situation had been “a shambles”.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “In retrospect, of course, if (it) had been known at the time what is known now, the appointment wouldn’t have been made.”

Acknowledging it had been a difficult week for Labour he said: “Many of us were devastated by [deputy PM] Angela Rayner’s departure from the government last week.

“She’s an extraordinary woman who’s overcome the most extraordinary challenges and we are grieving and feel quite acutely that sense of loss.

“Now to have the dismissal of Peter Mandelson just the next week, I totally get it, of course Labour MPs will be despondent that in two weeks in a row we have seen significant resignations from public service.

“These are not the headlines any of us in government or in Parliament would have chosen or wanted.

“But the fact is when the evidence emerged, action had to be taken and we are looking forward, therefore, to moving on.”

Conservative frontbencher Alex Burghart said his party would force a vote in Parliament to release the documents that the prime minister and the foreign secretary were shown before appointing Lord Mandelson.

“Those documents exist, they will be on file… it’s inconceivable they would not have been shown concerns raised by the security services through the vetting process,” he told BBC Breakfast.

The Liberal Democrats have said there should be a review of vetting procedures.

Paula Barker – who dropped out of the deputy Labour leader race on Thursday – said: “The delay in sacking him has only served to further erode the trust and confidence in our government and politics in the round.”

Charlotte Nichols said Mandelson’s sacking was “not immediate enough unfortunately, as he should never have been appointed in the first place”.

Sadik Al-Hassan said there were “serious questions about the vetting process of the ambassador”.

Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage said Lord Mandelson was “an enormously talented bloke” but his appointment “was a serious misjudgement from the prime minister.”

He said it “is about the prime minister’s judgement but also about the role that Morgan McSweeney plays in this government” adding: “I think McSweeney’s role is now considerably in doubt.”

Some Labour MPs have publicly expressed anger at how the situation with Mandelson has been handled.

Lord Mandelson’s association with Epstein was publicly known when he was given the Washington job.

However, at the start of the week, US lawmakers published documents from Epstein’s estate including 2003 birthday messages from Mandelson in which he refers to Epstein as “my best pal”.

Sir Keir initially stood by Lord Mandelson and on Wednesday said “due process” had been followed in his appointment.

But the following day he decided to sack his ambassador.

It came after a series of emails from Lord Mandelson to Epstein were published by the Sun and Bloomberg.

The emails included supportive messages Mandelson sent after Epstein had pleaded guilt to soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.

In one message, Mandelson is reported to have told Epstein to “fight for early release” and, the day before began his sentence, “I think the world of you.”

The BBC has been told the information published on Wednesday evening was not available to those in government when Lord Mandelson was appointed, as they came from what has been described as a “long closed” email address.

Douglas Alexander said he felt “incredulity and revulsion” when he read the emails, which he said “had not in any way reached the prime minister” during the appointment process.

“When that reached the prime minister’s desk, he acted and dismissed the ambassador.”

He said Lord Mandelson had initially been appointed because the UK needed an “unconventional ambassador” to work with Donald Trump’s “unconventional presidential administration”.

James Roscoe, the deputy head of the Washington embassy, has been appointed as interim ambassador ahead of the US President’s state visit to the UK next week.

Additional reporting by political correspondents Nick Eardley and Georgia Roberts

Stephen Lawrence’s mother has urged witnesses to come forward with information about her son’s murder, as an official review – triggered by a BBC investigation – has begun.

Baroness Doreen Lawrence told BBC News the review was the “last opportunity” for full justice and said she cannot grieve until that is achieved.

Investigators working for the College of Policing are examining information held by the Metropolitan Police to identify any outstanding lines of inquiry.

In a statement, the College said the review was being “conducted independently of the Met Police”.

Baroness Lawrence told the BBC she hoped people who hold information about the murder will now feel able to talk.

She said there were “reasons why they felt they couldn’t do it at the time”.

“This is the last opportunity that we’re going to have to get the complete justice that I think Stephen so deserves.

“So I would like to ask them, whatever they felt at the time, or whatever happened if they tried to help, please come forward now.”

The review was announced last year following a series of BBC reports which publicly named a sixth suspect in the murder, exposed a series of police failings, and led to an apology from Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to Baroness Lawrence for broken promises by the force.

A long process of negotiation followed over what the review would examine – with the Met conceding a series of key demands by the Lawrence family, including the full involvement of Clive Driscoll, the retired Met detective who achieved two murder convictions in the case.

In 2014, Mr Driscoll was replaced as senior investigating officer by the Met before he could complete his inquiry.

The review team will be led by a recently retired senior detective who had a career outside the Met.

It will seek to identify if any lines of enquiry were missed, not pursued properly, or now require a fresh approach.

One focus of the review will be the news reports by the BBC. If viable lines of inquiry are identified, they will be passed to an independent investigative body.

Stephen was 18 when he was stabbed to death in a racist attack in Eltham, south London, in April 1993. He had been waiting for a bus with his friend Duwayne Brooks, who said there were six attackers.

The Met’s failures to properly investigate the five prime suspects in the case became notorious and led to the force being branded “institutionally racist” by a landmark public inquiry. Two of Stephen’s murderers were finally convicted in 2012, but the other suspects have remained free.

The murder investigation was closed in 2020, with the Met saying everything possible had been done.

Baroness Lawrence told the BBC that key suspects, brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, have “been sitting quite pretty”.

“They believe they’ve got away with it, and the police have allowed them to think that they’ve got away with it,” she said. The Acourt brothers have always denied being involved with the murder.

Two years ago, the BBC publicity identified a sixth suspect, Matthew White, who died in 2021 and exposed a series of failures by the Met relating to him. Evidence that implicates White also implicates the key outstanding suspects.

“It’s been going on for 32 years, and we haven’t come to an end of it,” said Baroness Lawrence.

“Most people have come to the end and [are] allowed to grieve in private. We haven’t been given that opportunity.”

The Met said its objective remains “to achieve the arrest, prosecution and conviction of all of those responsible for Stephen’s murder”.

A spokesman added: “The review is being led by an experienced investigator working for the College and will focus on identifying any outstanding lines of enquiry which could reasonably lead to a suspect being brought to justice.”

The review team can be contacted at StephenLawrenceReview@college.police.uk.