Convicted gunman Noet Barnett was left devastated as a young boy when his father was killed, and he went on to lose four more relatives to violence.Meanwhile the man Barnett shot, Jeremiah Dill, has also suffered major heartache; his brother and sister were killed by their partners and his father died in unfortunate circumstances.Barnett, 25, was convicted yesterday of attempting to murder Mr Dill in what police believe was an act of vengeance on behalf of three cousins shot in gang-related slayings.Child protection campaigner Sheelagh Cooper broke down in tears after hearing of the verdict, telling The Royal Gazette shetried to support Barnett and stop his life spiralling out of control.“I’ve known him since he was a very young boy. He was brought to me when his father was murdered,” she explained. “His brother was in prison, then his mother was incarcerated and then his brother-in-law was murdered.“When he came to me he was a sweet young boy who was just devastated by the death of his father and he’s struggled ever since with serious events that have shattered his life and put him on a trajectory that almost guaranteed he would end up in difficulties.”Barnett was just six years old when his Jamaican father, Stanley Barnett, sustained a fractured skull in a street fight on Happy Valley Road, Pembroke. He died 13 days later in hospital, aged 35. Police treated the death as murder and two men were later charged; one with manslaughter and the other with causing grievous bodily harm. Both were found not guilty after a trial.When Barnett got older, Mrs Cooper got him evaluated by a psychologist who found he has an IQ of just 63 and is “mildly retarded”. He never learned to read, has a speech impediment and has the mental age of a nine or ten year old.Mrs Cooper employed him as a labourer at her family home and welcomed him there every weekend for years. She also employed him at her charity, the Coalition for the Protection of Children, and wrote him references for other jobs, describing him as “a very giving and caring young man” and “part of our family”.However, more tragedy was in store. In the space of one six-week period, three of Barnett’s cousins were shot dead. Kumi Harford was killed on December 5 2009, Shane Minors on December 17 and Perry Puckerin on January 3 2010.Barnett told detectives he cries every night over the deaths of his cousins, all of whom had links to the same 42 gang he was a member of. He believes they were killed by Parkside.Antonio Myers, a member of the Parkside / Middletown faction was convicted of murdering Mr Harford earlier this year and jailed for 38 years, but the other murders remain unsolved.By the time Barnett opened fire on Parkside member Jeremiah Dill on October 4 2010, detectives believe he was fuelled by a desire for revenge.Mrs Cooper said: “I’m not condoning what he did; if he did it. It’s not an excuse.”However, she believes the young man has been failed by the system, having struggled academically due to his learning difficulties and then been expelled from school aged just 14.“To me, this young life epitomises the kind of trajectory that so many of our young people are on,” she said. “The educational system has failed hm. Clearly this was a young man who needed help, and despite our attempts to ameliorate the situation the combined effects of all those things that have gone wrong has led him into a situation where the gang became his family. He wanted to be respected and have a sense of self worth, and the gang will do that.”Breaking down in tears, she added: “I’m saddened, I’m really upset and also feel ‘could I have done more? But you can’t fight this kind of trauma and lack of community support. That, I guess, is the thing that upsets me more than anything.”The Barnett case was also the latest in a series of Supreme Court trials that victim Jeremiah Dill and his family have endured. In October 2006, his brother Edward “Sleepy” Dill was stabbed to death by his girlfriend Andrina Smith. Ms Smith admitted killing Mr Dill, who was the father of her young daughter, but claimed she acted in self defence after he attacked her violently. She was convicted of manslaughter, and jailed for eight years.Less than a year later, on September 4 2007, Jeremiah and Edward Dill’s sister, Ruth Binns, was killed by her boyfriend Arnold Astwood. She died of a pre-existing medical condition exacerbated by an assault at his hands, and he was jailed for 14 years; reduced to eight on appeal.Ms Binns’ body was discovered by her sister Tookie Binns. Tookie was said during the latest trial to have been Barnett’s long-term girlfriend at the time he shot her brother.Their father Allan Dill was found dead, of natural causes, in the doorway of a Hamilton store in 2009. Although he had a home in Pembroke, the 58-year-old usually slept outdoors in the city where he was a familiar face as a carwasher.No members of the Barnett family nor the Dill family were present in court for yesterday evening’s verdict; only a handful of detectives from the Serious Crime Unit.