DE ST AUBIN: FIREMAN KNEW NOTHING OF PRISON ASSASSINATION

A firefighter accused of murdering a prison visitor in broad daylight told police he ‘knew nothing’ about the shooting, the Old Bailey heard today (Tues).

Leon De St Aubin, 34, became an uncle on the day 20 year-old Darcy Austin-Bruce was gunned down as he walked in to HMP Wandsworth in southwest London.

De St Aubin is said to have been the smartly dressed moped rider who drove the gunman away from the scene around 2.30pm on May 1, 2009.

Jurors heard he made an appointment to meet with the detectives four days later on May 5, after officers had visited Kentish Town fire station, where he worked, with a search warrant and emptied his locker.

In a series of interviews De St Aubin, who has a baby girl, had spent much of the day ‘chilling’ at his family home in Fulham, west London.

When asked if he knew anything about Mr Austin-Bruce’s murder, he said: ‘There’s nothing I know about that.’

De St Aubin explained his brother’s partner had been rushed in to Hammersmith hospital that day after suffering complications with her pregnancy.

She later gave birth to a baby girl and he went to visit them in the afternoon.

The firefighter had been up early on May 1 to take his girlfriend to work at a nearby special school.

He later watched the Jeremy Kyle Show and went to his aunt’s house where played computer games with his two cousins, before going out with his friend ‘Rupert’.

De St Aubin said when he did go out he left his phone at his aunt’s home.

Jurors were told ‘nothing of consequence’ was found in his locker at the fire station in Highgate Road, Camden.

De St Aubin is on trial for murder along with Rupert Ross and Casper Smith, both 30, and Khori Hines, 34.

The court heard Hines was arrested and brought in for interview on May 3, where he told detectives he had been picking up his son from school on the afternoon of the killing.

In the presence of his solicitor he gave a prepared statement, in which he said: ‘At the outset I would like to state I was not involved in the murder of Darcy Austin-Bruce.’

At the time of the murder he said he had been at home in Rosebury Road, Fulham, and then travelled to his aunt’s house. He also visited a phone shop in West Kensington.

Describing his movements, he said: ‘(I was) en route in the car to Holy Cross School in Parsons Green to collect my son.’

He also visited a park with his boy and the car wash. He had been driving a VW Golf.

Hines went on to make no further comment in interview.

The court has heard Mr Austin-Bruce was blasted five times before being left for dead on the pavement.

He was being escorted from the visitor centre with two friends when a man, dressed smartly in a suit to look like a lawyer, approached and pulled out a handgun.

Prosecutors allege Ross was the gunman, who fled from the south London prison on the back of a stolen black moped ridden by De St Aubin.

The killers had been tipped-off by inside man Smith, who was on remand on the same wing at Wandsworth as the man Mr Austin-Bruce was due to visit, it is said.

It is alleged Smith used a mobile phone, which had been smuggled in to him while he was on remand, to contact his cousin Hines and inform him of the exact time and place that Mr Austin-Bruce would be visiting.

Hines is accused of passing on the information to Ross and De St Aubin.

Prosecutors claim Hines, Ross and De St Aubin had all left their mobile phones at home in an attempt to disguise their movements from investigators.

The scooter, which had been stolen the night before the shooting, has never been found, along with the murder weapon or the clothing the men had been wearing.

The court has heard Ross and Mr Austin-Bruce had been involved in the supply of drugs together but the relationship soured.

It is claimed he and De St Aubin took revenge after being shot at by Mr Austin-Bruce and an associate.

De Saint Aubin, of (26) De Palma Court, Racton Road, Fulham, west London; Hines, of (29b) Rosebury Road, Fulham; Ross, of [11] Salisbury Pavement, Dawes Road, Fulham; and Smith, of no fixed address; deny murder.

The trial continues.