Imprisoned for text messages – the case of the Manchester 10

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.

The Manchester 10 are ten young Black men from Manchester who are serving lengthy prison sentences for participating in a group chat after their childhood friend was killed. The prosecution argued that the group chat was a forum to plan violent revenge for the killing of their friend. All ten members of the group chat were convicted on the basis of this argument.

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".

All welcome but please register to attend: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/23463/imprisoned-for-text-messages-the-case-of-the-manchester-10

This event has been organised by the UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation, which explores the impact of racism - scientific, metaphysical and cultural.