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Teenage 'Wild West' gunman convicted for Magda murder
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent22 May 2008
A teenage gunman was convicted at the Old Bailey today of killing a Polish nurse in a "Wild West-style" shootout.
Innocent victim Magda Pniewska was caught in the crossfire on her way home from work at a care home in New Cross. She died instantly as she talked to her sister in Poland on her mobile phone.
Armel Gnango was found guilty of murder. The verdict was watched by Miss Pniewska's family, including her mother Barbara and sister Elzbieta Luby.
The 17-year-old will be sentenced on 23 June by Mr Justice Cooke.
Gnango, who did not fire the fatal shot, had been shooting at a teenage rival across a car park.
The rival, who is also 17 and must remain anonymous, is known to detectives who today appealed for more information.
During the trial the jury heard how Ms Pniewska, 26, had collapsed "like a bag of rubbish" and died just a few hundred yards from her home in October last year.
She was walking home from the care home and was passing Stunell House in John Williams Close when the shooting broke out.
The gunmen - one wearing a red bandana and the other a hoodie - had come to the housing estate armed with 9mm handguns to settle a row over money.
Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, described the gunfire as resembling a scene from the Wild West and said the victim was "simply in the wrong place at the wrong time".
Miss Luby, 35, told the court how she heard her sister's dying breath over the mobile phone in a call from her home in Brezg.
"I heard shots. I recognised them as shots from a gun because I have heard shots before in my life," she told the court through an interpreter. "I am certain 100 per cent I heard them, they could not have been anything else.
'There were three or four with a short break between the third and the fourth, like a moment of hesitation-Between the third and fourth one I asked Magda: 'What is happening? Who is shooting there? What is going on?'
"She said: 'Ella, just wait a minute.' Then the fourth shot came and I heard her last breath. I heard when she fell down, I heard when all her bags fell down and I heard the mobile fall down.
"There was a silence of about 10 to 15 seconds and then I heard two more shots. I realised very quickly that Magda had been shot.
I was calling her, I thought she would pick up the phone again but it was quiet."
Miss Luby, who had flown in from Poland to give evidence, was watched from the back of court by her brother and her mother, who was hunched forward in her chair clutching paper hankies.
Gnango, from Streatham Hill, had denied murder, attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. He had admitted possession of a prohibited firearm. The jury was told that although it was "almost certain" Ms Pniewska was not killed by a bullet from the defendant's gun, he still bore criminal responsibility for the murder.
Gnango claimed he had been carrying a gun because he planned to sell it to a friend but had then seen his rival, who had earlier mugged his cousin, and had fired two shots into the air only to scare him off.
'RAY OF SUNSHINE HAS BEEN TAKEN FROM MY FAMILY'
IN A heartbreaking impact statement Magda's mother Barbara Pniewska said: "Our family has lost someone who has left such a void which will never be filled.
"No joy or happiness will fill the sorrow and emptiness left by Magda's loss."
Magda was one of three sisters and was born in Poland in 1985 when it was under martial law.
Her "loving and law-abiding" family had to give up luxuries to raise their children who were taught "how to be respectful".
Her mother added: "From the moment of her death not a day passes when we are not thinking of her and grieving her loss.
"We are still waiting for her phone call, her warm smile, her knock at the door. But hope has been overtaken by the reality that she will never be with us again.
"We are physically and mentally at breaking point.
"We support each other but it's now a completely different life and the death of our Magda has cast a shadow on our reason for living."
Mrs Pniewska added: "The whole town of Brezg, where Magda was born and raised, has been shaken by this tragedy ...
"My child's life has been untimely cut short and the ray of sunshine that was Magda has gone from the family."
Reader views (2)
So this is the price of enrichment is it?
No wonders we don't want it, my heartfelt wishes to her family.
- Tony Winchester, Southend G.B., 23/05/2008 06:58
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When is Britain going to realize that she will loose her country to the flawed theory of radical egalitarianism if she continues to ignore the example of America, which continues its mindless pursuit of "lowest common cultural denominators" across its varied multi-racial, multi-cultural landscape? I confess that I'm rather fond of America's "mother country" and sincerely hope she can right her ship before she suffers permanent harm. In the meantime, personal tragedies such as that which has befallen Magda Priewska's family will continue to mount. Here's to hoping that the spirits of Sir Winston Churchill and Admiral Lord Nelson are not entirely dead.
- V.I. Thor, Washington, USA, 23/05/2008 02:51
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