Judge says it is clear 15-year-old boy pointed gun at Shereka Fab-Ann Marsh and pulled trigger in order to frighten her

A teenage boy who shot dead his girlfriend on his birthday has been sentenced to nine years’ detention for her manslaughter.

Shereka Fab-Ann Marsh, 15, was hit in the neck by a single bullet from a counterfeit 1930s Italian Beretta pistol in the bedroom of a house in Hackney, east London, in March.

Last month, the 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named, was cleared by an Old Bailey jury of her murder but found guilty of manslaughter and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Sentencing him for both offences, the judge, Charles Wide, said it was plain from the evidence that he had been pointing the gun at Shereka in order to frighten her, and that the circumstances in which he had the gun and ammunition were in the context of “violent gang confrontation”.

The judge told the teenager: “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.”

During the trial, the boy insisted that he loved his girlfriend and had no reason to hurt her.

After the gun went off he phoned 999 but she was pronounced dead later that afternoon. On his arrest at the house, the boy told officers it was an accident and said: “Am I going to hell?” and: “My girl died on my birthday.”

Police later found two pictures on his mobile phone of him posing with handguns, one of which was pointing at the person who took the photograph.

And at the time of the shooting, he said they had both been holding the gun to feel the weight of it, sitting side by side on the bed. But he later changed his story and said in court that he had been standing in front of her, waving it around with both hands, not thinking it was loaded.

The defendant also initially claimed to have found the gun on Hackney Marshes but later said he had been asked to hide it for a man in his 20s whom he refused to name.

On Monday, Wide told the boy that he observed he had behaved with “quite remarkable coolness” while describing in court how he shot his girlfriend. He also took account of his previous violent behaviour – two convictions for robbery, one armed with a screwdriver.

The court heard that the boy had been excluded from school three times, twice for violence. And a text message referring to “shanks” showed he had been involved in a violent incident in the past, the judge said.

The youth had previously pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition but was not sentenced separately for those offences.