SAUNDERS: TEARS IN COURT AS GIPSY GETS 20 YEARS FOR MURDER OVER ‘SENSELESS QUARREL’

A teenage gipsy identified as a murderer with the dying words of his victim was jailed for 20 years.

Jimmy Saunders, 19, stabbed father of two Moses Devall, 36, in the chest to ‘make his mark’ in a violent dispute in the travelling community.

With just minutes to live, Mr Devall managed to gasp over the phone to his wife: ”It’s Jimmy Saunders”

Mr Devall’s wife Sarah Schock had been in a cat fight with Saunders’ sister Laura Coates at the Priory Tavern pub in Orpington, Kent, before the killing on the night of October 30, 2009.

But two other Saunders brothers joined in and Ms Schock was left unconscious on the floor of the pub.

She was badly hurt and had to have facial surgery.

Later that night Mr Devall had a ‘one on one’ fight outside his home in Swallowtail Close, St Mary Cray, Kent, with another Saunders brother, Billy.

Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee, QC, said: ‘It was now unfinished Saunders family business, the youngest seizing an opportunity to make his mark.’

Jimmy Saunders was driven to Mr Devall’s home by his girlfriend Katie Bignall, 27, the court heard.

Mr Devall was speaking to his wife using a neighbour’s phone when he was ambushed.

A neighbour saw him take Mr Devall by surprise and plunge the knife into his chest.

‘When he was stabbed he uttered his killer’s name to his wife, ”It’s Jimmy Saunders,”’ said Mr Jafferjee.

‘One of the last words he would ever utter and the last words his wife would hear him speak.’

Saunders claimed he was not at the scene but he was convicted by the jury.

Ms Schock sobbed in court as Mr Jafferjee read her statement to the court.

She said: ‘Moses was the love of my life. He was my rock my life, my everything.’

She said since the incident her family have had to move home because of threats still being made against them.

‘This is with me every second of every day.

‘My family and I continue on a day to day basis but we live in fear. Once we know were are safe we can grieve for Moses in peace.’

Judge Peter Beaumont, the Recorder of London, told Saunders: ‘You have ruined your life

‘You have done so by taking the life of a man who posed you no threat.

‘You did so by going to his house in the middle of the night, taking a knife. That was a premeditated act.

‘It was carried out as part of a completely senseless quarrel which had begun in the Priory Tavern where your behaviour does you no credit.’

As Saunders was led away a woman screamed hysterically from the public gallery: ‘He didn’t do it.’

The murderer turned and said: ‘Calm down’ as the cell door was shut behind him. 

Saunders, of (9) Powerscroft Road, Sidcup, Kent, denied murder.

He was convicted at a retrial after an earlier jury failed to agree on the murder charge.
ENDS