Sestanovich jailed after fatal robbery
Ashley Sestanovich has been jailed for eight years for helping to plan a robbery that ended in murder.
Sestanovich, 25, a former body double for Arsenal star Thierry Henry in TV adverts for Nike, stood head bowed as he was sentenced at the Old Bailey.
The former Sheffield United player was said to have been an inspiration to aspiring young footballers in the south London neighbourhood where he grew up.
Sestanovich, of Clapham, won an FA Cup 'player of the round' award while playing for United and he also turned out for Grimsby and Scarborough.
But on Wednesday he was behind bars and his career in tatters after being found guilty of conspiracy to rob a roofing firm in Streatham.
He was a player for non-league Farnborough Town when he told the robbers when pay-day was and how to get into the offices.
Damien Ennis, 26, a barber from Tulse Hill, and unemployed Hallroy Reid, 40, carried out the failed raid in which Thomas Fahey was killed.
Mr Fahey, 42, was visiting his brother at the family firm when the raid took place and was shot when he chased the men as they tried to make off.
A postal worker, from Cork in Ireland, he died in January last year, six months after the shooting.
Ennis and Reid, both Jamaicans, were found guilty of murder and jailed for life with minimum terms of 30 and 35 years, and recommended for deportation.
Judge Giles Forrester said they were part of a gang of "audacious and ruthless robbers" targeting commercial premises where large sums of money were kept.
He told Sestanovich: "Although I do not class you as a gang member you provided valuable and necessary information.
"Your occupation is one of a professional footballer, for which you have talent. I agree that the other defendants and yourself are a world apart from each other.
"Nevertheless you chose to engage yourself with the likes of Ennis and on this occasion you played your part in the planning of this robbery, with the appalling consequences which followed.''
Kim Halsall, for Sestanovich, told the court: "The carrying of and use of the firearm was outside of his knowledge.
"He perhaps was not aware of the extent of the background of the people that he was involved with and became involved with.
"Up until his involvement in this offence he was someone who'd given something back to the community that he lived in.
"He was a real-life role model for a number of young boys who had wanted to become involved in football."
Among the "glowing references" made on his behalf was one from a youth who was now on a scholarship at Chelsea.
Sestanovich had missed out on the birth of his daughter since being in custody.
"His football career is at an end and so when he is released he really will have to find another future for himself," she said.
Four other men were also sentenced for their part in a series of violent raids carried out by the gang. They all received indeterminate sentences for public protection.
Unemployed Michael Walker, 39, of Brixton, and minicab driver Gilroy Goode, 39, of Thornton Heath, were found guilty of robbery and possessing firearms, both receiving minimum terms of eight years.
Dwayne Blake, 28, of West Dulwich, and Owen Morgan, 31, of Brixton, both unemployed, admitted robbery and a firearms charge. Blake was given a minimum term of nine years and Morgan eight years.
