Stratford man jailed after double death

Thursday, September 20, 2012
5:00 PM

Drug feud ends with two gunned down in street

A gang member who took part in the double murder that marked the “terrible endgame” of a feud between school friends has been jailed for four years.

Rodney Morrison, 42, teamed up with Daniel Wilson and his uncle, Wayne Wilson, to exact revenge on Jayson Hassan, 28 and Lee Wallace, 25.

Mr Hassan had fallen out with his long-term friend Daniel Wilson, 28 and had threatened to kill him just days before his own death.

The victim was a cocaine dealer and used Wilson as a street runner to peddle drugs. Wilson had a £3,000 debt with Mr Hassan, who also wanted two handguns returned to him which Wilson had been storing.

He recruited his Muslim-convert uncle, Wayne, 43 and Morrison to help him take revenge after receiving a string of threatening text messages.

Morrison, of Lancaster Road, Stratford, denied murder, claiming he did not realise the two men were to be shot dead.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm at the Old Bailey and was locked up.

Daniel and Wayne Wilson were each handed life sentences with a minimum term of 35 years after they were convicted of murder last December.

The Recorder of London, Peter Beaumont QC, told Morrison he had been involved in a terrible crime.

He accepted that Morrison did not know the two men were to be killed when he went to the scene. But the judge added: “Only a substantial period in custody can be justified for an offence of this gravity.”

Mr Hassan and Mr Wallace were gunned down outside Strang House in Britannia Row, Islington, in the early hours of November 9, 2010.

“Daniel Wilson and Wayne Wilson went to give the guns back, but not in the way Jayson Hassan – or indeed Lee Wallace – could ever have anticipated,” said prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC. Wallace died instantly, while Hassan died from his injuries the following day.

Mr Aylett said: “The first police officers to arrive were confronted by an appalling scene. Outside the flats, two men were laying on the ground. They both had gunshot wounds.”

“One of them, Lee Wallace, was already dead. The other, Jayson Hassan, has sustained terrible injuries from which he would die later that day.”

“This was the terrible endgame in the falling out between two drug dealers.”

Wilson had been working for Mr Hassan for some time and had taken possession of two guns from him, which he buried in the back garden of the house next door to his grandmother’s home in Lichfield Road, Bow.

In September 2009 Wilson was arrested at the address after police officers with a search warrant found 40g of cocaine, 55g of skunk weed and three unfired .22-calibre cartridges

Wilson was subsequently charged but released on bail and remained on bail throughout 2010. He was still on bail for those offences when he gunned down Mr Hassan.

Wilson admitted offences of possession with intent to supply and a possession of ammunition without a certificate before he went on trial for murder and was sentenced to three years and nine months.

The pair had known each other from school and had remained friends as they grew up.

In a series of threatening text messages during late October and early November, Mr Hassan demanded his money £3,000 and the return of his guns.

In one he warned: “I’m going to shank you. If you don’t phone me back in 10, see if I’m joking.”

He threatened to smash the windows of Mr Wilson’s flat, suggested he would send someone to his grandmother’s house and warned he would have his girlfriend attacked. “You’re f***ing taking food out of my daughter’s mouth,” he wrote.

On another occasion he had held a knife to the throat of Mr Wilson’s partner as he searched Bow for him.

Just days before the killing the Wilson family travelled to Preston, Lancashire, where Wayne Wilson was to marry in a Muslim wedding.

Daniel Wilson, of Lichfield Road, Bow and his uncle Wayne Wilson, of Preston, Lancashire, denied two counts of murder and were convicted.