Video emerges of moment teenage assailant pistol-whips South London store owner

Man has now been jailed for four years after admitting robbery and possession of an imitation firearm

CCTV captured the attack (Met Police, via London Live)

A teenager has been sentenced to four years in jail after robbing a convenience store in south-east London as CCTV footage emerged of him pistol-whipping the shopkeeper.

Surveillance video shows Nazim ‘Naz’ McClaren, 18, of Hither Green Lane in Catford, assaulting the store worker, an unidentified man in his 30s, on 6 April last year.

In the video, McClaren places the shopkeeper in a headlock before beating him with what later transpired to be an imitation pistol.

Prior to his physical assault on the man, Met Police officers heard how McClaren had entered the shop, demanding the man open the till and give him the money inside at around 8pm.

The assailant then made off with the money.

The victim, who was hit so hard over the head that McClaren’s imitation weapon shattered at the scene, later required hospital treatment.

Met police officers, who were alerted to the Catford shop robbery at approximately 8pm that evening, forensically tested fragments of the weapon as well as fingerprints on the till for DNA that was found to belong to McClaren.

He was arrested on 22 July last year and charged the following day robbery and possession of an imitation firearm.

Woolwich Crown Court sentenced McClaren yesterday to four years in prison, after he admitted robbery and possession of an imitation firearm.

Detective Constable Johnny Baker, from the Met's Flying Squad, said: "This was a very violent and horrific attack on a member of the public who was working alone in the shop.”

Detective Constable Baker, who worked on the case, added in a statement released to the press: “The Flying Squad will always robustly pursue and bring to justice all those who engage in armed violent crime and I hope that the sentence can bring some comfort to the victim and help him to move on from what must have been a terrifying ordeal."