The father of a teenager murdered in a brutal gang-related knife crime is facing trial for allegedly threatening two people with a blade days after the trial ended.
Raymond Quigley, 61, has been charged with two counts of threatening a person with a bladed article in Wymondham, Norfolk.
Three days before the alleged offence – which he denies – two teenagers were convicted of killing his son, also Raymond but known as James, in broad daylight in front of horrified shoppers.
Quigley, who lives in Wymondham, appeared at Norwich Crown Court for a pre-trial review last Thursday.
Judge Anthony Bate told him the case would ‘remain in next week’s warned list’, which means it could be heard any time within the next two weeks from tomorrow.
Quigley is said to have made the threats on January 29 last year, just after Alfie Hammett and Joshua Howell, both then 19, had been found guilty of killing his son.
The trial, also at Norwich Crown Court, heard the killing was connected to another murder, with both the result of a violent rivalry between two gangs in the city.
Joe Dix, 18, a member of the notorious 3rdside crew, was stabbed to death in January 2022 by members of rival mob Only The Money (OTM) when he went to help a county lines drug dealer they were robbing.
He sustained seven wounds following a chase. Four bladed weapons were later identified in court as having been used, including a 24in-long sword.
James, of Wymondham, was killed because he had been linked to OTM after attending the Dix murder trial in support of three friends who were in the dock.
His killer, Hammett, was living in Ipswich on police bail conditions following a violent brawl he was involved in when he received a tip that the teenager was in the town with friends.
He confronted James and stabbed him four times, while Howell – a member of Ipswich’s IP3 gang, which is affiliated to 3rdside – stopped his friends from intervening by wielding a machete.
It later emerged Hammett and Mr Quigley had been childhood friends before they were drawn into rival gangs.
Hammett, of Rushmere St Andrew, and Howell, of Ipswich, were both jailed for life in March last year, with the former receiving a minimum 24-year term and his accomplice getting 20 years.
The case prompted sentencing Judge Martyn Levett to warn the ‘frequency and levels of violence’ between groups of thugs risked turning towns into no-go areas.
‘This knife crime is blighting the historic peacefulness of towns, making them unsafe to visit,’ he said.
Mr Dix’s parents later set up the Joe Dix Foundation to raise awareness of the dangers of child exploitation, gangs and knife crime.
They had been unaware of his murky lifestyle but later learned that ‘like other kids’, he was drawn into the drugs business by being given a package to deliver and then being mugged to ‘leave him in debt’. He was then unable to leave the gang for fear of violent reprisals.