Gangs and guns ruined Chloe's life

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'Gangs and guns ruined Chloe's life'

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Teenager Chloe Goodman revelled in her girl gangster reputation, posing with a machine gun for photos and dating a member of a notorious inner-city gang.

But her tough image crumbled when she wept in court after being jailed for three years for hiding a gun for her convicted drug dealer boyfriend.

Goodman and a friend were paid £300 to look after a Smith & Wesson gun for Daniel Brown, 21 - a member of notorious Manchester gang the Lostock Crew.

Police found the weapon at Goodman1s house in May 2009. She was jailed last month after a judge heard how she "got a buzz" from being around gun culture. The court heard how police had uncovered photos of Goodman - then just 17 - posing menacingly with imitation weapons.

Goodman and her friend are part of an increasing number of young girls who are joining gangs and hiding guns for gangsters. In London last year, 12 girls appeared in court on gun charges.

Last year Chanelle Merryweather, 17, from Manchester, was given a two-year supervision order after she carried a gun for a gang.

When Closer visited south Manchester - where gun crime has increased by a huge 79 per cent in 10 years - we discovered teen girls were proud to be affiliated with gangs. real life

Speaking exclusively to Closer, Goodman's sister Kelly, 20, (second picture featured), told how girls look after guns for gangsters to impress boys, and claims five people own guns on the street where she lives.

She says: "Girls do it out of a misplaced loyalty to boys like Daniel. They hope it'll make them look cool and don1t care about the dangers."

She adds: "Chloe planned to become a holistic therapist. I never expected she'd get involved in a gang."

Goodman's involvement with the Lostock Crew started at secondary school.

"She struggled to make friends and bunked off a lot," recalls Kelly, who looks after laboratory animals. "We moved house and Chloe went to another school in Urmston, making friends with older kids who were involved with the
Crew.

"One of her friends told me the gang was involved in dealing drugs and members carried guns for protection, and to threaten users who couldn't pay off debts. She told me I should get involved but I refused. I said to stay
away but she said I was paranoid."

Every night, groups of youths head to a park in Stretford, minutes from Urmston, to down booze and take drugs.

Barely in their teens, they're some of the youngest recruits of gangs like the Lostock Crew, and many, like Goodman, are girls.

One 15-year-old girl in baggy jeans and a grey hoodie boasts that she mugs people in the street to earn money for a gang.

She says: "My mate once robbed 15 people in 30 minutes. The Crew sells the stuff we nick, including iPods and mobiles, and they give us 20 per cent of the profit. It's easy cash."

Another girl shamelessly brags: "We don't care if we get caught robbing because the most we'd get is an electronic tag or a curfew. It means we're respected and the gang protects us."

According to Kelly, girls are expected to start mugging people as part of their initiation. Incredibly, Kelly reveals Chloe was just 12 when she started.

"She'd already started drinking in parks, coming home wasted," says Kelly.

"One night she admitted robbing a shop for them and I was furious. I begged her to stop but she said her mates all did it and it wasn't that bad."

Goodman's parents, Paul and Deborah, desperately tried to keep her out of trouble, even locking her in her bedroom.

"The gang convinced her to climb out the window," says Kelly.

Their parents signed up both girls for the Army Cadet Force, hoping to keep their youngest daughter in particular away from troublemakers - however it sparked her interest in guns.

"She enjoyed all the activities, but she was mostly interested in the shooting, which she'd brag about to her mates," recalls Kelly.

"It was frustrating because when she wasn't with the gang she was just my little sister and we'd watch films together and mess about singing karaoke."

In 2007, Goodman started an on-off relationship with thug Daniel Brown, who has previous convictions for robbery and supplying cannabis.

"One of her schoolmates introduced them," says Kelly. "He was big in the Lostock Crew - everyone knew he carried a gun.

"I think she was attracted to his power and desperate to impress him. I had no idea what they got up to, but I worried because her mate once showed me a photo of a gun she was looking after for the Crew.

"She told me she kept it so the gang could use it when someone needed sorting out."

In August 2008, Goodman was arrested and charged with robbery, but Kelly believes being given an electronic tag as part of an intensive supervision and surveillance programme was a wake-up call for her sister.

"She enrolled at college, took a part-time cleaning job and planned to become a holistic therapist," she says.

However, Goodman continued to see Brown and, in May 2009, she agreed to hide a loaded handgun for him.

After handing over the weapon in a sock at Goodman1s house one night last May, Goodman1s 16-year-old pal stuffed the gun in a handbag.

Goodman bragged to friends she was "holding heat for Danny B."

Just four hours later police raided Goodman1s house after a tip-off. The teenagers tossed the bag out of an upstairs window - but it landed on a hedge and was recovered by police.
"I was devastated and angry when our cousin told me Chloe had been arrested," says Kelly.

Sentencing Goodman, who cried when she learned her fate, Judge Timothy Mort told her: "It was something that gave you a buzz. It was seen as cool."

real life

The friend, who cannot be named, was sentenced to a two-year detention and training order.

Brown was jailed for five years after he admitted possessing a firearm and ammunition and an unrelated offence of blackmailing a man who owed him £300.

Now Chloe has vowed to ditch the gang when she is released from prison.

"It's awful visiting her in jail," says Kelly. "She says she's sorry and that she's finished with the gang but they'll be difficult to avoid when she gets out. On my street alone there are five people who own guns. I hope she means it this time.

By Natalie Corp