Assassin Hassan Osseili jailed after gangland target’s daughter caught in crossfire

An assassin who gunned down his target’s young daughter while she helped lift groceries from the family car, in the Sydney gangland war’s most shocking incident, has been sentenced.

An assassin who gunned down his target’s young daughter in the Sydney gangland war’s most shocking incident has been sentenced to a minimum 9 years jail.

Hassan Osseili was sentenced in the Sydney District Court on Friday over the incident where he fired five shots at three children while they were helping their mother take groceries into their Southern Sydney home.

Judge Gina O’Rourke sentenced him to a maximum 14 years jail.

One of the shots hit a nine-year-old girl in the hip leaving her with lifelong physical and mental injuries.

In sentencing the 24-year-old, Judge O’Rourke told the court the girl’s “life has been changed irrevocably for the worse” by the horrific incident that occurred on July 8, 2022.

Hassan Osseili was arrested in the days after the shooting.

“Her childhood has been shattered,” Judge O’Rourke told the court. “The offender must be held accountable for his conduct and must be punished for it.”

Osseili’s lawyers Troy Edwards SC and Mohammad Chahine entered pleas of guilty for their client to charges of conspiring to murder and shooting with intent to kill.

Judge O’Rourke sentenced him to a maximum 14 years jail with a non-parole period of nine years.

The court was told Osseili was the shooter while another man, Mahmoud Rizk, was the getaway driver.

Rizk was sentenced to a maximum 12 years jail in December 2023.

The court was told the two men had accepted a contract taken out by an unknown crime figure to murder the girl’s father.

But when he wasn’t home, Osseili stood at the end of the driveway and opened fire at the children while they were helping their mother bring groceries inside.

Police found a gun in bushland near where they arrested the getaway driver.

Judge O’Rourke told the court the area where the children were standing was well lit and it would have been impossible for him to mistake them for his actual target.

“This offender fired a loaded gun at three children sitting on a well lit porch area knowing the intended target was not present with an intent to kill the target’s children,” Judge O’Rourke told the court.

The shooting came at the height of Sydney’s gangland war with the fact that the victim was a nine-year-old girl further inflamed tensions.

“It cannot be understated how these offences caused such considerable fear and harm to the community in general,” Judge O’Rourke told the court.

It was submitted to the court that Osseili was a heavy drug user who, at various times, was consuming 3-5g of cocaine per day and 2-3g of ice per day.

At the time of the shooting, Osseili submitted to the court, he had been taking ice and hadn’t slept for three days.

The assassins burned the getaway car.

The girl’s panicked mother thought her daughter was dead after one of her other children dragged the girl inside.

The court was told the two men accepted the murder contract from an unnamed crime figure who communicated with them via an encrypted messaging service.

They arrived at the scene in a stolen BMW.

After the shooting, they sped to a Mini Cooper getaway car that had been parked in a nearby street.

But when the mini wouldn’t start, they set fire to the BMW and fled on foot.

Rizk was arrested in a nearby waterway while Osseili was arrested days later.

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Originally published as Assassin Hassan Osseili jailed after gangland target’s daughter caught in crossfire