Men wielding hockey stick and shovel joined eight-man ambush to butcher DPD worker, court told

Sehajpal Singh, 26, and Mehakdeep Singh, 24, who both lived at Shaw Road in Tipton, each face a charge of murder relating to the killing of Aurman Singh, 23.

They have both denied the charge.

Aurman was killed in Berwick Avenue, Shrewsbury, when he was attacked by up to seven men carrying a host of weapons - including an axe, a golf club, a wooden stave, a knife, a shovel, a cricket bat, and a hockey stick.

The 23-year-old DPD worker was a passenger with a colleague in a van while carrying out deliveries in the area on August 21, 2023.

Aurman was killed in the quiet street in frenzied attack carried out at 1pm, in 'broad daylight', as he tried to run away.

His attackers had driven from Tipton in the West Midlands in two cars - an Audi and a Mercedes, and lay in wait, ready for the ambush.

Four men have previously been convicted of his murder, with another 'inside man' who worked at DPD's Stoke depot found guilty of manslaughter after providing the information which allowed the gang to track and kill the delivery worker.

Arshdeep Singh, of Shaw Road in Tipton, Jagdeep Singh, of Goodrich Mews in Dudley, Shivdeep Singh of Greenfield Road in Smethwick, and Manjot Singh of Greenfield Road in Smethwick, were jailed in April last year - each for 28 years for murder.

Simon Denison KC, opening the case for the prosecution at Stafford Crown Court, explained that while four people in the Audi had been arrested a matter of hours after the attack, the four occupants of the Mercedes had escaped.

He told the jury that those men included Sehajpal and Mehakdeep, who were subsequently arrested in Austria, and returned to the country to face trial.

Mr Denison told the jury of the planning, organisation, and discussions with the inside man - Sukhmandeep Singh who was jailed for ten years - the night before the attack, and the morning of the shocking incident.

He told how Aurman had been sat in the passenger seat of the van while his colleague, the driver, got out to deliver a parcel.

He said: "Unknown to them eight men in two cars - a grey Audi and a white Mercedes - had been waiting for them just down the road.

"Those eight men knew where Aurman Singh was going to be because a colleague of his at the DPD depot provided them with his route for that day, with the addresses at which he would be delivering packages, and the times within which each delivery would be made.

"And so they knew he would be in Berwick Avenue in Shrewsbury on that day at about that time, and there they waited.

"When Aurman Singh's van arrived they followed it along Berwick Avenue and pulled up behind it."

He added that seven men had jumped out of the vehicles with their faces covered - each carrying a weapon.

He said: "Between them they had an axe, a golf club, a wooden stave, a hockey stick, a shovel, a cricket bat, and a knife."

He added: "Their target was Aurman Singh. He was alerted by their shouting and he got out of the van and tried to run away but he did not stand a chance against those numbers and those weapons.

"He was chopped in the head three times with the axe - blows which fractured his skull."

Aurman was also hit with a golf club with such force that it broke the head off and bent the shaft.

He was also hit with the other weapons, as well as being stabbed in the back twice.

Mr Dennison added: "It was an attack intended to kill and he was left to die in a pool of blood on the side of the road."

The court heard that one of the previously convicted men, Jagdeep, had videoed himself holding a bloodied axe and shouting in the back of the car as it made its getaway from the scene.

Manjot could also be seen in the front passenger seat holding up a bloodied wooden stave to show it to the camera.

Mr Dennison said they were both boasting about what they had done.

The court was told that while the men in the Audi sped back to the West Midlands, the four men in the Mercedes - including back-seat passengers Sehajpal and Mehakdeep - had driven along Ellesmere Road onto Hubert Way where their weapons were discarded.

The weapons were later found by a dog walker who took them home before calling the police when they found out about the shocking attack.

The car was abandoned in Kynaston Road and the occupants made their way in two separate groups to Shrewsbury Railway Station - Sehajpal and Mehakdeep in a taxi, and the other pair by bus.

They then caught a train to Wolverhampton.

Mr Dennison said: "These two defendants left the country within a couple of weeks of the murder. They were found to be living in Austria and in May last year they were arrested there and brought back to this country to be tried for the murder."

The court was shown footage of the two cars and the eight men meeting in the morning at the home of Mehakdeep and Sehajpal at Shaw Road - which they shared with Arshdeep, before the group set off on their journey to Shrewsbury.

Other CCTV shows them men stopping at an Esso garage to fill up the cars with petrol and then at the Morrison's Daily off New Park Road in Shrewsbury.

Mr Dennison shared CCTV footage and phone records that show communication between Sukhmandeep and Arshdeep on the morning of the attack.

Phone records show that Arshdeep sent a mobile number for Sehajpal to Sukhmandeep early on the morning of August 21, with a message saying 'phone on this as well, keep doing it'.

The court was also told of repeated communication between Sukhmandeep, Arshdeep, and Sehajpal and Mehakdeep - who were using the same phone.

The communication included sending a message in Punjabi saying Aurman was with him, as well as a picture showing the registration of the DPD van he would be working in that day.

The court also heard that Sukhmandeep had accessed the DPD system showing Aurman's delivery route and times.

Mr Dennison later showed the court footage of Mehakdeep carrying a hockey at the scene of the attack, with Sehajpal with a wooden shovel.

An eye witness had seen up to six men stood around something on the floor - hitting it and shouting and swearing.

He described one of those men as holding a shovel. The same witness ran out of his home to see what was happening and took a picture of the Mercedes leaving the scene.

The court was told that neighbours did what they could to help Aurman before the paramedics and police arrived.

But, Mr Dennison explained that he had suffered a large wound to his head, which had exposed his brain, and had also lost a significant amount of blood.

There were faint signs of life when police arrived, but very quickly he became unresponsive and died at the scene.

In the wake of the groups splitting up there were numerous calls from Sehajpal and Mehakdeep to Arshdeep and Manjot - although they went unanswered as the pair were unaware that the occupants of the Audi had been arrested.

CCTV footage shows the four occupants of the Mercedes at Wolverhampton Railway Station, where records show Mehakdeep had booked an Uber to take him to an address in Tipton.

The trial continues.