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‘Black magic’ led to cricket-bat murder
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| Nazeer Ahmed, who was battered to death |
A man "cursed by black magic" battered a defenceless student to death with a cricket bat, a murder trial jury was told.
Illegal immigrant Dawood Khan rained heavy blows on Nazeer Ahmed's head as he sat eating an afternoon meal, it is alleged.
Mr Ahmed, 22, a business administration student, was found slumped dead on his sofa with a half-eaten chapatti in his lap.
Khan, who lodged at Mr Ahmed's rented home in Rupert Street, Keighley, denies murdering him on May 31 last year.
Prosecutor Richard Mansell told Bradford Crown Court this week that Mr Ahmed's body was discovered at about 3.45pm by Ajay Rajput, a semi-professional cricketer, who also shared the house.
Mr Ahmed, who had been studying at home, had two glasses of milk and a bowl of curry in front of him.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
Mr Ahmed, who came to the UK in 2005 on an education visa, was killed by repeated heavy blows from the bat.
"This was a brutal attack on a defenceless man, with multiple blows aimed at the head with a weapon," Mr Mansell said.
Pathologist Professor Christ-opher Milroy found that at least four blows were dealt to the head and two to the chest. Mr Ahmed suffered a skull fracture and massive bruising to the head. He would have been knocked unconscious immediately.
A cricket bat in the kitchen at the terrace house had Mr Ahmed's blood on it, the jury heard.
A towel was used to wipe blood from the dead man, or the murderer's hands. Mr Mansell said Khan was seen in an agitated state in Nadeem Food Store, in Cark Road, Keighley, at about 3.30pm that day. He paid £115 to two men to take him to Birmingham.
He was arrested at Sandbach Service Station, in Cheshire, hiding in a cubicle in the ladies' toilet.
Mr Mansell said spots of Mr Ahmed's blood were found on Khan's jeans and right training shoe.
The jury was told Khan's housemates would give evidence that he was showing signs of mental illness in the weeks before Mr Ahmed's death.
Mr Mansell said: "He was not eating and was making comments to the effect that he believed someone had put a black magic curse on him."
He was considered unfit for police interview, sectioned under the Mental Health Act, and had been in hospital since.
Khan, who entered the UK illegally from Afghanistan, told police he was 14.
Mr Mansell said the Crown did not know his age but he "appeared to be considerably older".
Mr Mansell said that Khan claims he was not at home when Mr Ahmed was killed.
He returned to find police at the house and fled because he was an illegal immigrant and feared imprisonment.
The jury heard that all other occupants of the house could be shown to have been at work at the time of the murder.
The evidence was compelling that Khan was guilty, said Mr Mansell.
The trial continues.
8:28am Thursday 15th May 2008
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