A 14-year-old boy queued for takeaway food with his pal - then a gunman shot him dead

It was 8pm on a Saturday night.

John 'Benji' Stanley and his mate Neville 'Tito' Gunning were queuing for food in Alvino's Pattie and Dumpling Shop in Moss Side. Outside in the street a silver car pulled up.

A gunman in a camouflage jacket and balaclava jumped out and fired through the glass front door of the shop. His first shot missed the teenage boys, so he walked inside and shot Benji in the chest at close range with a pump action shotgun.

READ MORE: 25 unsolved Greater Manchester murders that have baffled detectives for decades, and where they took place

The 14-year-old died a short time later in hospital. He was the youngest person to be shot dead in Manchester.

More than 30 years later his killer has never been caught. Adopted at 22-months old, Benji lived just 100 yards away from where he was gunned down in a terrace house on Cadogan Street.

Well-liked among his friends, he was said to be 'potty' about music, liked to babysit and had to be in bed by 9pm every night. Speaking three days after her son's death, Benji's mum Denise Stanley told the Manchester Evening News: "I'm blaming myself in a way for being so strict with him and holding him back from what he wanted. I just thought if I kept a chain on him I would not be faced with the problems a hundred other mothers have with their children."

So why was this innocent schoolboy gunned down? In the days that followed speculation about the motives for Benji's killing ran riot.

Detectives originally worked on the theory he was executed in a row over a stolen £900 mountain bike. Speaking in the days after the killing Det Chief Insp Ron Astles said: "It would be quite incredible if a 14-year-old boy was killed over such a petty issue.

"Anyone who can