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Former policemen and brothers, Brian and Leon Steven, who gunned down four men at an Umbilo pub, will be spending about two decades behind bars after their appeals were dismissed by the Pietermaritzburg High Court yesterday. <\/p>\n
Brian, who was a warrant officer at the Mayville police station when the attack happened, and Leon, who was a sergeant at the Durban Central police station, were convicted of four counts of murder and one of attempted murder in September 2010. <\/p>\n
The charges stemmed from the \u201cheinous and callous\u201d killings of Shawn Strydom, 32, Rory Menzies, 40, Nick Jansen van Rensburg, 47, and Bruce Edwards, 57, and the attempted murder of Edwards\u2019s son, Shaun, 31, at the Merseyside Pub and Tavern in Umbilo in September, 2008. <\/p>\n
Brian and Leon were jailed for 25 and 20 years respectively by Acting Judge Guido Penzhorn who said the murders had been \u201cnothing short of a massacre\u201d. <\/p>\n
According to the evidence, the shooting followed a scuffle between Brian Steven and another patron which, depending on whose version is believed, was sparked by \u201cbanter over penis size\u201d. <\/p>\n
The State said the murders were premeditated as the brothers went outside to their cars and then returned with their guns to the pub and opened fire on the patrons. <\/p>\n
Both men appealed against their convictions and sentences as they claimed they had shot in self-defence. <\/p>\n
Yesterday, Judge Gregory Kruger, with two judges concurring, confirmed the sentences and said the evidence did not support the brothers\u2019 version. <\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the unchallenged evidence of the independent witness, the car guard who saw the brothers force their way into the pub and then heard gunshots, the appellants could not have acted in self-defence.\u201d <\/p>\n
Judge Kruger also found that both brothers had been facing life imprisonment for the crimes and the sentences imposed were suitable. <\/p>\n
Jansen van Rensburg\u2019s wife, Rika, who said yesterday that she had not known the men had even appealed, was glad the court had refused. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey deserve the sentences they got because they broke up and destroyed a lot of families. It is a good|decision, they must stay in jail.\u201d <\/p>\n
Menzie\u2019s mother, Marie Corbett, said she had had no doubt that the convictions and sentences would be upheld. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am happy that the appeals were refused. The consequences of what they did was devastating for our family and it will take a long time for us to pick up the pieces.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former policemen and brothers, Brian and Leon Steven, who gunned down four men at an Umbilo pub, will be spending about two decades behind bars after their appeals were dismissed by the Pietermaritzburg High Court yesterday. Brian, who was a warrant officer at the Mayville police station when the attack happened, and Leon, who was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-15455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}