Wolverhampton gang leader facing jail after shooting himself in the groin
A notorious street gang leader was facing a long prison sentence today after admitting having two sawn-off shotguns during an incident in which he shot himself in the groin
Scott Benjamin was injured when one of the weapons was fired in the bedroom of a house in Cypress Road, Yew Tree, Walsall. It is believed his finger was on the trigger of the gun.
The 30-year-old’s serious injuries required surgery which is said to have involved the removal of a testicle.
There are also suggestions that one of the guns was fired out of a window at the address, which was not his home. Shotgun pellets were later found embedded in the road surface outside.
Benjamin from Hillies Road, Chelmsley Wood pleaded guilty to being in possession of two sawn-off shotguns on January 4 when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday.
He further admitted committing these offences after previously receiving a six-year prison sentence for possession of a gun.
Mr Niall Skinner, defending, conceded: “The facts of this case are particularly unusual. He was sentenced to six years for a like offence in 2011.”
He asked for further information to be gathered on the psychiatric state of the defendant but this was dismissed by Judge Kristina Montgomery QC who said that an existing report concluded ‘this defendant does not present with the sort of treatable mental illness that would prevent his receiving an immediate custodial sentence.”
The Judge added that there were issues as to why Benjamin discharged the gun in the way he did and ‘what harm he intended to himself rather than inadvertently caused to himself.’
She called for a pre-sentence report to deal with ‘issues of dangerousness' and remanded the defendant, from Hillies Road, Chelmsley Wood, in custody until a later date, telling him: “The court requires assistance to determine what risk you will pose to the public upon your eventual release and whether you should be given an extended sentence.”
Benjamin, said to be a former cage fighter, led the Pendeford Crew and had the street name Shredder.
He was jailed for six years in 2011 after police found a pistol loaded with seven bullets under a bed at his then girlfriend’s house in Inglewood Avenue, Bradmore.
He admitted possession of the firearm and ammunition, modified to explode on impact, on the basis that he was looking after it for a criminal associate.
Police have told a court in the past that Benjamin was linked to gang crime.
It was said he was in Wolverhampton city centre when his 21-year-old close friend Marlon Morris was stabbed to death by rival gang member Jamie Price, a son of dance music star Goldie, in 2008.
