Drug dealer guilty of new year's eve murder in Sheffield as accomplice flees to Pakistan

A jury took four hours and 23 minutes to unanimously find Idris Sadiq guilty of the killing of 41-year-old Zabair Hussain.

Idris Sadiq and two other men attacked Mr Hussain with a baseball bat while punching and kicking him and left him for dead on Staniforth Road, Darnall, at around 11.20pm on New Year’s Eve.

While lying unconscious in the middle of the road, he was run over by a passing car and died at the scene.

Sadiq, aged 30, of Darnall Road, had accepted being involved in the incident but claimed he had intervened in an attempt to stop the other two men attacking Mr Hussain.

Sadiq kept his head bowed and showed no reaction as the jury’s verdict was announced following a two-week trial.

There was a shout of ‘Yes’ from the public gallery as Mr Hussain’s family heard the guilty verdict.

Following the verdict, police said they are continuing to search for the other two men involved in the attack, including pursuing the possibility of extraditing suspect Sohail Khan, who fled to Pakistan 48 hours after the attack.

The court heard Sadiq has two previous convictions for dealing Class A drugs in 2005 and 2009 and in 2013 was convicted of criminal damage after being involved in an incident where baseball bats and machetes were brandished as a person’s car was attacked.

Ben Nolan QC, prosecuting, said: “The evidence points to the killing being drug-connected and the defendant running a successful Class A drug-dealing business. He and Sohail Khan used violent methods to further the interests of their business.”

He said Mr Hussain had been a ‘painfully thin’ drug user who was ‘not somebody who could stand up to any attack, let alone one of this severity’.

Speaking after the verdict, Detective Chief Inspector Steve Handley said: “This is a really positive result for our inquiry and I am pleased that a jury has convicted Sadiq of murder based on the overwhelming evidence we were able to put before the court.

“Mr Hussain’s family and friends have had to hear in detail about the horrific injuries inflicted upon their loved one, and have carried themselves with dignity throughout our investigation and the trial process.

“I would once again like to offer them my condolences as they begin to come to terms with the verdict today and what it means for their family.”

DCI Handley added that the search for the other two suspects involved in the killing is continuing.

He said: “The court has heard of a second man we are actively seeking in connection with this investigation – 29-year-old Sohail Khan. We understand Mr Khan is currently in Pakistan and we are working hard to identify opportunities to apprehend him and bring him before the courts, which includes the possibility of extradition.”

Tributes to Mr Hussain were paid in court by two of his nieces, which left some members of the jury left in tears.

Aneasa and Sana Hussain spoke of the pain of having to identify their uncle’s body and said his murder came just months after one of his brothers Bobby had died.

Aneasa said: “After my uncle Bobby passed away in February 2015, I remember thinking on New Year’s Eve surely this year can’t get any worse than the last.

“At 10am on New Year’s Day, I heard the tragic news that tore my family apart. At first, I didn’t believe it was Zabair. It was only when I did something I never expected to do in my lifetime and identified his body, our lives were turned upside down.

“I struggle to get the horrific images out of my mind.

“I still can’t understand why he was taken from us so brutally.

“It has affected my whole family but most of all my dad. Zabair was his brother and best friend. My dad is never going to be the same again.”