Life sentences: Sabrina Moss's killers told they must serve 37 years in prison
Friday, 12th September 2014
THREE drug dealers who murdered a nursery teacher who was celebrating her birthday when they “indiscriminately” sprayed a machine gun into a crowd containing two rival gang members have been jailed for life.
Sabrina Moss was sheltering from the rain outside Woody’s Grill take-away in Kilburn High Road in August last year when tensions exploded between the warring Kensal Green Boys (KGB) and the South Kilburn Gang.
The 24-year-old mother-of-one’s last words were, “I’ve been shot in my heart”, before she died shortly afterwards of fatal wounds.
The killing in the early hours on August 24 had been sparked hours earlier after a member of the KGB had been “rushed” outside a nearby shop and they vowed to carry out “revenge”.
Hassan Hussain, 29, a drug dealer who recorded raps about guns on his Blackberry and had an “unhealthy obsession” with firearms, armed himself with a Mac 10 submachine gun he called his “baby”, the Old Bailey heard on Friday.
His cousin Yasin James, 20, took a sawn-off shot gun, and they were driven to Messina Avenue by get-a-way driver Martell Warren, 23.
In CCTV footage they are seen creeping up towards the takeaway, hiding behind cars and lampposts, before leaping out and opening fire at close-range.
“It was,” Judge Stephen Kramer QC told the court, “an intended execution, in which an innocent victim was killed.”
Hussain, of Willesden Green, James, of Wembley, and Warren, of Kensal Green, were jailed on Friday for a minimum of 37 years each for the murder as well as the attempted murder of Ms Moss’s friend Sabrina Gachette, 25, and the attempted murder of their intended targets, Edson Da Silva and Mahad Ahmed.
As Judge Kramer’s sentence was greeted by cheers and applause in the public gallery, one of the convicted men swore at the public gallery.
Judge Kramer said: “This was part of gang or gang-related warfare in north London founded on drug dealing and disrespect between the South Kilburn Gang and the Kensal Green Boys. It was an intended execution in which an innocent victim was killed.”
He continued: “It is clear that what you did that night will have a lasting physical and mental effect on Sabrina Gachette and the family of Sabrina Moss, a much-loved mother, partner, daughter, sister and friend.”
In a statement read out after the sentencing Ms Moss’s partner Aaron, the father of their four-year-old son, said: “The loss of my partner and the mother of our child has left a void so vast no amount of justice will ever fill. Caring for our son every day as a single parent is a harsh reminder of the family values we held close to our hearts and were so proud to have maintained for many years. The life we planned was to be very different from the one we have been forced to accept.”
During the 10-week trial the court heard how Ms Moss, who had recently moved into a new flat in Neasden with Aaron and their son, had taken the day off work to get ready for her party with friends at home.
The group had a VIP table booked at Love and Liquor nightclub in Kilburn High Road, where they danced late into the night before leaving in search of food at a local takeaway.
Miss Gachette, who was lucky to survive after having 50 shotgun pellets pierce her back, said in her statement: “It has to be appreciated, that not only was I a victim, I was a witness to the murder of one of my closest friends. Someone I had known for 13 years, taken away in an instant.
“Hearing Sabrina exclaim that she had been shot in her heart are the last words I ever heard her say. The last time I saw her, we were running for our lives into Woody Grill. These words and images will never leave me.”
Outside the court, Ms Moss’s uncle, Emmanuel Flavius, thanked the police for catching the killers and said that 37 years was “the best result ever”.
“Sabrina was like an angel who will be very missed by everybody,” he added. “Our loss has been so much.”
Simon Baptiste, 29, of Cricklewood, was jailed for four years for his role as a “spotter” for the gangsters while they carried out reconnaissance missions looking for their targets.
Keir Monteith, spoke in mitigation for Baptiste, a painter and decorator who had no previous convictions or cautions, read multiple good character reports and pleaded for leniency. He said Baptiste had no knowledge of the firearms or the group’s true intentions.
Judge Kramer commended the police officers for their work on a difficult and complicated case, including Det Chief Insp Andy Partridge and Det Sgt Martin Sloan.
'They are not killers' protest outside Old Bailey
By ALICE HUTTON
THE families of two men convicted of murdering Sabrina Moss staged a protest outside the Old Bailey claiming “they are not killers”.
Relatives and supporters of Hassan Hussain and Yasin James donned t-shirts and held banners and placards urging the “real killers” to be found.
Shirin Hassan, Hussain’s mother, said: “[We want] justice, not just for our boys but there are many, many behind those prisons wrongly convicted for a crime that they have not committed. And families have been devastated. We are all of us have been destroyed.”
Mohamed Akunjee, who is representing the families of cousins Hussain and James, said in a statement: “We wish to convey our deepest sympathies to the family of Sabrina Moss for their tragic loss throughout this difficult time. Our thoughts have never been far from the pain they suffered and continue to suffer. It is our deepest desire that all those involved in Sabrina’s killing are detected and brought to justice for their hideous act.”
He added: “Hassan and James have maintained their innocence throughout the whole process. We know our children are far from ideal but we do know that they are not killers and are innocent of Sabrina’s death. We are bitterly disappointed by the jury’s decision to convict our innocent children but we have not lost faith in the justice system and we seek every avenue to secure the truth and remedy this miscarriage.”
