Gang murdered Asian on night of race hate

LONDON: In a racial attack, three drunken white youths with a 'pack mentality' chased a young Asian man before slashing his throat and stabbing him 14 times in a summer night last year, a British court was told.

As news of the death spread in the mixed-race estate in Preston, white and Asian men clashed in an armed brawl that left police to pick up "weapon upon weapon" from the streets.

The three youths charged, Kieran McKerney, 18, his brother, Liam, 19, and Lee Moore, 20, all from the Callon estate, deny murdering Shezan Umarji on July 22 last year.
   
The jury at the Preston Crown Court was told on Wednesday that the victim was no innocent bystander but a participant in the night's events who, with another Asian man, had attacked the three men with a wooden bat or bottle and followed up this "mindless dispute" by pursing them to the McKerney family home, where they kicked in the front door.

William Waldron, QC, for the prosecution told the jury that it was an inescapable fact that race played its part in the events.

Waldron said Umarji was stabbed or slashed 14 times, one "grievous" wound slicing through his jugular vein. A second stabbing that sliced 16 cm into his chest, passing through his heart, would have been enough to prove fatal, the jury was told.
   
Waldron said, "The Crown say he met his death at the hands of these three defendants."

"Acting together, perhaps fuelled by the alcohol they had consumed, and having lost their self-control completely, jointly and individually they literally chased down Shezan Umarji and with a "pack mentality" killed him. They were each as responsible for the others' act as for their own," Waldron said.
   
Umarji too was no model citizen, the jury was told.

On the night he had drunk alcohol, taken diazepam and smoked cannabis. Had he lived he may have faced criminal charges, but, the prosecution said, he did not deserve to die.