Cabbie ‘froze in horror at hammer killings’

Sabir Hussain told Bradford Crown Court he never expected fellow cabbie Mohammed Zubair to inflict violence on love rival Ahmedin Khyel and his friend Imran Khan in the living room of Zubair’s home last May.

The court has heard Zubair’s wife Kainat Bibi, 27, had been having an affair with Mr Khyel, 35, from London, and her husband, the prime suspect, left the country following the attacks.

The bodies of Mr Khyel and Mr Khan, 27, of Gloucester Avenue, Bradford, were later found dumped in a lane in the Tong area of Bradford. Both had suffered severe head injuries.

Hussain, 40, who worked with Zubair at Tyersal Private Hire, said after using the toilet at his colleague’s home in Heath Terrace, Bradford, Zubair showed him a hammer and two dumb-bell bars, telling him and a cousin of Zubair’s who was present they would be used to scare the two men.

“What were you thinking about what you were seeing and what he was saying?” he was asked by his defence counsel Anthony Cross QC.

“The kind of person he was I was thinking he can’t be serious. He’s got to be joking... he wasn’t that type of person,” replied Hussain. But after Zubair’s mother whispered something to him, Zubair picked up the hammer and went fast into the living room.

Hussain said he and the other man picked up the dumb-bell bars to make sure there was no trouble, but by the time they got inside Mr Khyel was already bleeding from his head and Zubair was asking Mr Khan: “Who’s Ahmed?”

He said Zubair then hit both men repeatedly with the hammer although Zubair’s mother Arab Sultana tried to stop the attack.

“He was calm but he was just violently beating both of them up,” said Hussain. “Not saying a single word.”

Even when Zubair’s mother said “Stop it my son that’s enough” the attack continued.

Hussain said it was so unexpected he just froze for a time. The men were still moving when he left the house, and he was shaking so much he could not drive straight.

Hussain of Wensleydale Road, Bradford, denies the murders of both men. A second man Mohammed Iqbal Mazar 29 of Athol Road, Heaton, Bradford denies attempting to pervert the course of justice by assisting in the removal of bloodstains.

The trial continues.