Brandon Ali: By 18 he had a shotgun. At 19 he was smuggling drugs. Age 20 he had murdered a man – Teesside Live

Brandon Ali stared across at the press bench in court. Defiant, dishonest to his core, and completely unrepentant, he showed no reaction as he was sentenced to 21-years in prison for murder, in the summer of last year.

Four months later, Ali simply shrugged as he was handed an 11-month jail term for posting a radio stuffed full of drugs to an inmate in August, 2020. That sentence runs alongside his current 21-year minimum term, meaning he spends no extra time behind bars.

Three months after that, Ali stood staring at the press bench once again, as he was brought out of his cell to attend court. This time he was given a three-year prison stretch, after a shotgun with his DNA all over it was found buried near a children's park.

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The sawn-off gun was buried at some point before the winter of 2019, when Ali was 18 at the most. This means that at the age of just 22, Ali has a lengthy prison sentence to serve.

There has never been a hint of remorse shown by the former Hemlington drug dealer - although he must surely regret his actions now he has days on end with nothing to do but think, whilst holed up in prison.

Ali, and his pal Joey Matthews, were once winning the turf war in Hemlington. Constantly out on their push bikes, they supplied the narrow streets of terraced home with anything from cannabis to the anti-anxiety pill, pregabalin.

But when a rival dealer threatened their livelihood, Ali and Matthews, declared war. There was a fight in the street and threats made, before the two 21-year-olds saw Mr Eland out on his bike, on Saturday, August 21, 2021.

Witnesses said Matthews was driving, but in court Judge Watson said the murder was a joint enterprise. They must have seen Mr Eland's girlfriend Kassi Weir sitting on the handlebars. Their car mounted the kerb and drove straight at the couple.

The 37-year-old drug dealer suffered catastrophic brain injuries. His girlfriend Kassi Weir, who miraculously escaped serious injury, was seen screaming: "He's dying! he's dying!" as a witness rang 999 to say that "blood was pumping out of Carl Eland's head, ears and nose."

Mr Eland was pronounced dead days later in hospital. He had four children.

Judge Paul Watson KC told the pair: "No one who has seen the dramatic footage of the vehicle being driven into the bicycle and the cyclists being thrown from it, could forget those dreadful images. The sense of shock when it was played to the jury was audible," as he jailed them both for 21 years.

Four months into his life term, Ali was in the dock at Teesside Crown Court again. His fingerprints were found on a digital radio, which was posted to HMP Northumberland, in August 2020. It was stuffed full of drugs.

Ali tried to claim that he thought he was just posting a digital radio - but his fingerprints were found on the inside of the radio and on one of the packets of drugs. He appeared in the dock alongside Steve Blagg, 45, and the pair were convicted of sending 3,370 worth of class C drugs, hidden in the back of the radio, into prison.

Blagg has 145 offences to his name, and has been in and out of prison for much of his life. The radio was posted to the wing where his son was incarcerated.

Ali was back in court earlier this year, after police uncovered a firearm, buried in a contained in the mud, near a children's playground in North Ormesby, Middlesbrough.

Again, Ali denied all knowledge - somewhat bafflingly claiming that he had only ever touched a gun when he went to "shoot clays" with his grandad, as a child. Under cross-examination, he said that his DNA "could have been on a gun that I touched before" but that he had never used a sawn-off shotgun.

When the prosecution accused Ali of lying about the clay pigeon shooting, and asked him why he hadn't given that explanation to the police when he was arrested in 2019, Ali remained unflustered. "I didn't think," he told the jury. "I was young."

His co-accused George Lammie, 45, told the court that he was a drug dealer and that he must have inadvertently touched the shotgun when someone - he couldn't remember - came to his house and offered him a bag containing a gun, in exchange for drugs.

Ali, of Dalwood Court in Hemlington, was given three-years. Lammie was jailed for five.

Ali is the antithesis of a clever or sophisticated criminal. He killed a man in front of people on a residential street. And he left his DNA all over a shotgun, and on the drugs inside the radio.

But he has never shown any emotion - not when he was handed a life term in prison, nor when the harrowing details of Mr Eland's fatal injuries were read out to a courtroom, packed full of the victim's family and friends.

His mother, who has attended all of his court cases, shouted "see you son" as he was last led out of court. Ali didn't reply, he didn't even glance back at his mum, as he was led away to a waiting prison van. He must surely be one of the youngest "lifers" in HMP Durham.

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Brandon Ali: By 18 he had a shotgun. At 19 he was smuggling drugs. Age 20 he had murdered a man - Teesside Live