Rothwell was a key figure in the Salford gang feud that unfolded between 2014 and 2019
11:29, 11 Jul 2025Updated 11:40, 11 Jul 2025
Jamie Rothwell(Image: NCA)
The trial of gangster Jamie Rothwell had to be cancelled after he was stabbed in Strangeways prison. Rothwell, a notorious figure in Manchester’s criminal underworld, was on trial for gun and drug offences alongside four other men.
Rothwell, a leading member of the city’s Anti A-Team gang, admitted a string of offences in February. His guilty pleas can now be reported for the first time after reporting restrictions were lifted.
The proceedings began at Minshull Street Crown Court and continued for two days before being abruptly halted last August following the incident. The jury was informed the adjournment was due to illness, with Rothwell unable to attend court for the ‘foreseeable future’.
However, following the lifting of reporting restrictions, it can now be confirmed the real cause for the delay was Rothwell being stabbed at HMP Manchester in August last year.
At that time, he was facing charges related to a series of drug and firearm offences. He initially denied all charges but altered his pleas during a hearing in February this year, reports the Manchester Evening News. He was found not guilty of some offences.
Jamie Rothwell(Image: NCA)
Under heavy security in court and escorted by armed officers, Rothwell, 38, admitted to one count of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life; one count of conspiracy to possess ammunition with intent to endanger life; conspiracy to supply a Class A controlled drug, specifically cocaine; two counts of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent and a single count of conspiracy to supply a Class B controlled drug, namely ketamine.
He pleaded not guilty to five other charges.
The charges included two counts of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent; two counts of conspiracy to supply a Class A controlled drug, specifically diamorphine and cannabis, and one count of possession of criminal property, namely money.
Images of HMP Strangeways and surrounding areas (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Rothwell was a key figure in the Salford gang feud that unfolded between 2014 and 2019, involving rival factions the A Team and the Anti A-Team. Rothwell was reportedly the right-hand man of Michael Carroll, the alleged leader of the Anti A-Team, opposing the A-Team, purportedly led by Stephen Britton.
Gangster Paul Massey was believed to be Britton’s mentor.
In March 2015, as part of the ongoing feud, Rothwell was shot at a car wash in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan. Despite being targeted by a gunman who fired multiple shots, Rothwell survived.
Later that year, in July, Massey was fatally shot outside his Salford home by Mark Fellows, an associate of the Anti A-Team known as The Iceman.
(Image: Greater Manchester Police)
Fellows appeared at Liverpool Crown Court in 2018 where he was charged and later convicted of the murder of Massey and Liverpool man John Kinsella, who was shot dead on a roundabout of the M62 near Rainhill in May 2018.
Kinsella was out walking his dogs at the time of his death and he was shot dead in front of his partner.
In October 2015, seven-year-old Christian Hickey was shot on his doorstep as the A Team sought revenge in a botched hit, thought to have been targeting the schoolboy’s dad, a close associate of Carroll.
In October 2020, Rothwell went on trial at Manchester Crown Court alongside four other men, including Mark Fellows, accused of conspiring to murder two A Team associates, after one was shot in February 2015 and the other attacked with a machete in March that year.
Rothwell was found not guilty of all charges. At some point after his acquittals, Rothwell left the country. He was arrested in Amsterdam on December 14, 2020, before being extradited back to the UK in March 2021 after police obtained a European Arrest Warrant.
Rothwell was one of hundreds of criminals exposed by law enforcement infiltration of the EncroChat network, a highly encrypted communications system used by organised criminals.
Lawyers had begun opening the prosecution case against Rothwell at Minshull Street Crown Court on Thursday, August 1, and Friday, August 2 last year. Jaime Hamilton KC was set to continue his opening the following week, before it emerged Rothwell had been injured on Sunday, August 4.
Jurors remained on standby to resume the case the following week. But on August 12, trial Judge Alan Conrad KC decided to adjourn the hearing.
In the absence of jurors, he told the court that medical reports had found that Rothwell was ‘not fit, either physically or mentally’ to attend court ‘for the foreseeable future’.
Mr Hamilton said there was ‘uncertainty’ about Rothwell’s prognosis, with some reports suggesting he could be fit within a week, and more pessimistic reports claiming it could take up to six weeks. The prosecutor said the chance of resuming the trial with all defendants with the jury was ‘wholly unrealistic’.
A spokesperson for the prison confirmed the attack, and said two prisoners suffered minor injuries during an ‘incident’ at the jail on Sunday, August 4, the day before the trial was scheduled to resume.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Two prisoners were treated for minor injuries by medical staff at HMP Manchester after an incident on 4 August. We do not tolerate violence in our prisons and anyone found guilty of wrongdoing will be punished.”
