Alleged Smethwick murderer tells jury black magic was to blame for death
A man accused of murder has told a jury that black magic may have been responsible for the victim’s death.
Gurmukh Singh was thrown from the house where he had been beaten up and left to die outside the front door, Mr David Mason QC, prosecuting told Wolverhampton Crown Court.
The 70-year-old former carpenter had been on a drinking spree with 51-year-old Palvinder Hayre who lived at the address in White Road, Smethwick, the court was told.
A CCTV camera captured the moment the victim was pitched face down onto the property’s footpath just inches from the pavement shortly after 1pm on November 23.
The film, shot from overhead, showed a person wearing grey jogging bottoms and a distinctive Adidas jacket ejecting Mr Singh who was taken to hospital where he was certified dead soon afterwards.
These matched the clothes worn by Hayre during the previous two days, the jury heard.
He was in bed when arrested and was wearing his jogging bottoms on which the blood of the victim was later found. It was also discovered in the living room where they had been drinking, explained Mr Mason.
A visitor to the address who saw Mr Singh around an hour before he was thrown out of the premises told the court he had no injuries when she left.
Multiple injuries
Mr Singh had 29 fractures to his ribs, a fracture to his breast bone, fractures to both eye sockets and fractures to either side of his thyroid cartilage where somebody had tried to throttle him or hold him in a neck lock, the court was told.
The alcohol level in his blood was almost four times the drink-drive limit.
Consultant forensic pathologist Dr Brett Lockyer told the trial earlier that the victim had been hit at least four times with heavy punches, leaving him with deep bruising and fractures.
More from the trial:
There was also a possibility of a concussive brain injury becoming fatal if the person had been drinking heavily.
Hayre insisted he had neither argued with nor struck the victim who, he claimed, was still unhurt when the defendant went to sleep upstairs.
He maintained: “I didn’t touch him at all.” He confirmed to police that he had been drinking with Mr Singh the day before the death and the victim spent the night at his house.
But when asked to explain how this could happen without his involvement he replied: “Black magic. I think they sent somebody to kill me but maybe they have killed him.”
He denies murder and the case continues.
