Two men have received a combined 55 years in prison for their roles in a shooting outside a nightclub in Bexleyheath. At Woolwich Crown Court on 9 October, Marvin Bulle was sentenced to 35 years and Carlos Parks to 20 years. The outcome followed their convictions at the same court in August.
Different convictions, separate sentences
Bulle, 33, was found guilty of attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. Parks, 35, was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. The offences and sentences were not identical: the court imposed a 35-year term on Bulle and a 20-year term on Parks.
The case concerned an incident in the early hours of 4 January, when a 30-year-old man was shot outside a nightclub on Bexleyheath Broadway. He had been with a group involved in an altercation inside the venue. The victim’s group was attacked as it left, and one of the attackers was knocked unconscious. The shooting followed that confrontation.
Police were called at about 2.15am. The injured man was taken to hospital in a critical condition after being shot in the head at close range. He spent eight days in critical care. The bullet lodged in his spine, and he was left with life-changing injuries, including damage that nearly cost him the sight in his right eye.
Evidence and arrests
Evidence presented in the case included footage from a camera fitted to a London Ambulance Service response vehicle. The response crew had been flagged down to help the person knocked unconscious during the earlier disturbance. Its camera captured the shooting.
Footage from the area showed Bulle returning to the scene on foot after going back to a car. Parks followed slowly in the vehicle. After the shooting, the pair drove away; Parks lost control and crashed into a lamppost about 100 metres from the scene. They left the car and fled on foot.
Parks was arrested in Greenwich about 14 hours after the shooting. Bulle was arrested in Mistley, Essex, on 14 January, after fleeing first to Suffolk and then to rural Essex. Both men were identified from CCTV.
The firearm was not recovered at the time. A converted starter pistol was found in Eltham in May during an unrelated operation and was subsequently linked to the Bexleyheath shooting through forensic examination. Its recovery provided a further connection between the weapon and the incident.
What the court outcome establishes
The August verdicts established the offences for which each man was convicted, while the October hearing determined the prison terms. Bulle’s attempted-murder conviction and Parks’s conviction for causing grievous bodily harm with intent reflect the separate findings in their cases. Both were also convicted of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.
The October hearing determined the sentences following the August verdicts. The prison terms do not lessen the continuing consequences for the victim. He survived a close-range shooting and a critical hospital stay, yet continues to live with serious, life-changing injuries. The case also illustrates the evidential role that can be played by material gathered for purposes other than a criminal investigation: ambulance dash-camera footage recorded a key part of the attack while the crew was responding to an earlier medical emergency.
