Saturday Hassan

A man who opened fire on two brothers in a Croydon pub, killing one and seriously injuring the other, has been jailed for 37 years by a judge at the Old Bailey today.

Saturday Hassan, a 30-year-old builder from Sydenham said by Judge David Paget to ‘admire the gangster lifestyle’ was given three life sentences after being found guilty of murder, attempted murder and a firearms charge.

The court was told that after being thrown out of the family’s pub, The Newton Arms in Thornton Heath on New Year’s Eve last year, Hassan returned with a gun and shot the two brothers when they tried to disarm him.

Hassan fired three times at Darren Deslandes, 34, killing him with a bullet in the brain. Junior Deslandes, 26, was shot five times but miraculously survived, although he may never work again and will have three bullets lodged in his skull for the rest of his life.

The brothers were shot in front of their mother, father and younger brother. Judge Paget told Hassan he devastated the Deslandes family physically, mentally and financially in what was described as “10 seconds of devastation”.

He was cleared of attempting to murder the brothers’ 58-year-old father, Wintworth Deslandes.

The Old Bailey heard that Hassan had been a man of good character who was attracted by the gangster lifestyle, driving a BMW 4×4 and carrying a gun.

Judge Paget said: “That car and that gun are the trappings of a gangster. You have no convictions but you appear to be someone who admires that style of life.”