Who are the Manchester 10?
Why is their case central to combating racism in the legal system?
What can you do to help?
A public event on:
Wednesday 13th November 2024
2pm to 4pm
In the IAS Common Ground, Ground Floor, Wilkins Building, UCL
Speaker: Roxy Legane, Director of Kids of Colour, will introduce the case of the Manchester 10 and the questions this case raises about state racism and access to a fair hearing in the UK today. The meeting will include showing of a short film and discussion of how to support the campaign for justice.
ALL WELCOME
The Manchester 10 are ten young Black men from Manchester who are serving lengthy prison sentences on after being constructed as a ‘gang’ by the prosecution.
The majority of the young men did not harm, and for some, the only evidence against them was their participation in a group chat, which the prosecution argued was a forum to plan violent revenge for the killing of their friend. Despite the brief nature of this chat, no agreements being made, and no harm coming from what was discussed, the young men were convicted on conspiracy charges.
In July 2024, a leave to appeal hearing was held in relation to some of the ten. In this hearing, Keir Monteith KC submitted that the use of a "gang narrative for people who had no part in violence" was used to build the prosecution's case, and that "institutional racism" helps "explain what went wrong in this case."
In the original trial, the prosecution had shown a photo of one of the ten with cash to his ear as part of their ‘evidence’. This was questioned by Keir Monteith KC, arguing that Ademola Adedeji, his client, was simply "copying celebrities" in a social media phenomenon known as the 'money phone', and the prosecution, judge's and the jury's reliance on such evidence as 'gang culture' and drug dealing was influenced by "racist stereotyping and cultural ignorance".
Former President of Def Jam records Kevin Liles provided fresh evidence on the money phone, saying “the attempt to submit images of a money phone as "gang activity" is breathtaking cultural ignorance and laziness…At worst, it is a knowingly cynical and racist attempt to criminalize hip-hop and Black culture.”
This is the first time that submissions have been publicly made in the Court of Appeal that a conviction is "unsafe", because so called 'gang evidence' is the product of "institutional racism".