Three guilty of shooting five-year-old girl

Three men were found guilty of a gang-related shooting that left a five-year-old girl paralysed, shattering her dreams of becoming a dancer.

Thusha Kamaleswaran, now six, was wounded when the men opened fire in her aunt's south London shop in March last year.

A bullet hit Thusha in the chest and passed through the seventh vertebra of her spine, leaving her wheelchair-bound for life.

The young girl was captured on CCTV dancing along an aisle moments before the shooting happened.

Nathaniel Grant, Kazeem Kolawole and Anthony McCalla were convicted by an Old Bailey jury of causing her grievous bodily harm with intent.

Thusha's mother Sharmila Kamaleswaran wept as extracts from her victim impact statement were read to the court by junior prosecutor Michelle Nelson.

The mother-of-three said the tragedy was "unbearable" for her family, and described the shock of seeing her daughter in a hospital bed, saying:

Thusha is due to be discharged from hospital next week, and her doctor, Allison Graham, said her condition is not expected to improve.

Grant, Kolawole and McCalla were looking for a rival gang member when Grant opened fire in the Stockwell Food and Wine shop.