Teenager jailed over drill music video

A teenage gang leader has been jailed for making a drill music video in breach of a court order.

Essex Police said Roland Douherty, 19, had been banned from featuring in videos of the controversial form of rap music, which often includes references to real-life violent events including stabbings.

But nine months after the order was made he appeared in a music video called Bro Code rapping about “pulling the trigger twice on a gun”, dealing drugs and carrying weapons, the force said.

Douherty, formally of Cardinal Road, Chafford Hundred, disputed that the video breached the order, but a “drill translation” provided by an Essex Police expert said that it did.

The teenager was sentenced at Chelmsford County Court on Thursday to 19 weeks in prison, the force said.

The C17 gang in Thurrock has preyed on young children, luring them into the gang then exploiting them by getting them to run drugs and carry cash from deals or knives.

Douherty, who heads up the gang, was made the subject of a court order in September last year and the video was posted online in June this year.

The order banned him from featuring in any audio recording or video online that is threatening, abusive, insulting, incites violence, promotes criminal activity, shows weapons or makes reference to gang affiliations and the C17.

It also banned him from large parts of Thurrock and from congregating in a public place in a group of two or more.

Chief Superintendent Tracey Harman, Essex Police’s lead for Operation Raptor, said: “Violent drill videos continue to be posted online where they are consumed by young people who may think the gang lifestyle is glamorous.

“However our translation of just one part of the music video in this case shows the content of some drill videos is often violent.”