Fri, 19 Jul 2019
David Mason QC and Sarah Allen are acting for the prosecution in a murder trial in which they allege the victim was “unceremoniously dumped” and left to die on the doorstep of a house in Smethwick.
Wolverhampton Crown Court has heard that 70-year-old Gurmukh Singh had been drinking with Palvinder Hayre, 51, one of three tenants at the house in White Road, and had appeared to be getting on. But Mr Singh was later found on the pathway of the house suffering serious injuries consistent with an assault.
The jury was shown CCTV footage which captured the moment he was pitched facedown outside the property on November 23. The prosecution told the court: “The body was unceremoniously dumped on the front door step of his house in the afternoon and stayed there for about half an hour before it was seen but had received such a violent beating, that there was nothing that could have been done to save him.”
Paramedics were called to the scene and took the victim to City Hospital where he was certified dead. He had 19 fractures to his ribs, a fracture to his breastbone and damage to the area around his throat. The alcohol level in his blood was almost four times the drink drive limit.
The pathologist concluded he had been subjected to a blunt force assault causing fatal injury to the chest with the right lung collapsing after being punctured.
A pair of jogging bottoms, seen in the footage being worn by Hayre were found to have Mr Singh’s blood on them, which an expert said had been airborne, indicating the wearer had been involved in some kind of an assault.
Hayre denies murder and the trial continues.
