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Jamaican Olympic athlete, Germaine Mason, has reportedly made a desperate plea to a UK court to reduce the life sentence passed down to his equally talented brother.
The London newspaper, The Evening Standard, reports that the high jumper is doing all he can to support his athletic younger brother, Andre, who was found guilty on a murder charge.
While Germaine Mason aims for gold in London in 2012 having won a silver medal in the high jump at Beijing, his teenage brother Andre is beginning a life sentence for the murder of an innocent student.
Andre was still only 14 when he and a pack of youths "hunted" down and murdered 22-year-old Yasin Abdirahman, stabbing him in the head and chest.
This week, Andre, now aged 16, was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve a minimum 13 years behind bars.
Germaine, said to be "shocked" and "saddened" by the murder and his brother's part in it, had made a desperate plea to reduce the punishment.
He wrote to the judge in the case insisting that his brother had acted entirely out of character and appealing for as much clemency as a life sentence with a minimum term could permit.
The boys' mother Carol felt she "had lost a son".
Andre was born in London but went to live in Jamaica, his mother's birthplace, when he was two months old.
Aged 13, he returned to the UK, winning trophies at 100m in junior competitions and with hopes to emulate his brother, who was already winning senior championships.
Andre too dreamed of university.
But <span style="font-weight: bold">back in London</span>, where he attended Acton High School, he appears to have gone off the rails, lured in by a notorious local gang known as MDP - known for its use of knives and guns.
Germaine, <span style="font-weight: bold">meanwhile, is in Jamaica </span>training with great dedication for the athletics season ahead and with 2012 in his sights.
He fell in love with the high jump at the age of nine and by the age of 17, he was Jamaican champion.
In 2002 he first met Jamaica's Olympic mega-champion Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man.
The pair has developed a firm and long standing friendship and it was Bolt who was one of the first to congratulate Germaine on his Olympic silver medal.
A fall-out with Coach Stephen Francis and persuasion from his mother led him in 2006 to take up the option offered by his dual nationality and represent Great Britain.
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