Teenager facing years behind bars for killing schoolgirl Shereka Marsh

Schoolgirl Shereka Marsh. Photograph: The Urswick School

A fifteen year-old boy who fatally shot his girlfriend Shereka Marsh in the neck has been jailed for nine years.

Shereka Marsh, a pupil at Urswick School, was visiting her boyfriend at his house on Eastway to give him his birthday present when he accidently shot her with a counterfeit 1930s Beretta pistol.

The police discovered Shereka collapsed on a bed at the address.

Despite attempts to revive the schoolgirl, she was pronounced dead at the scene. A post-mortem examination found that Shereka died from a single gunshot wound to the neck.

The teenager had been keeping the weapon, which had been used in a gangland shooting in Lower Clapton in February 2014, for a criminal he refused to name.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of manslaughter and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life on September 29 following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Sentencing him for both offences, the Old Bailey judge said he had “no doubt at all” that he pointed the gun at Shereka in order to “frighten her”.

Judge Wide said: “Having come into possession of the gun and ammunition plainly in the context of being asked to look after it … you then got it out, and I have no doubt at all you pointed it at Shereka and pulled the trigger to frighten her and you shot her dead.”