Wolverhampton man 'suffered homophobic abuse on Instagram' before he was killed

Mircea Gheorghe Cozmiuc, aged 23, was stabbed more than 20 times in Carter Road, Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, where he had lived.

His alleged murderer, 37-year-old Sivan Amin, had lived with Mr Cozmiuc at that address until June 12 last year when he was 'booted out' after a row.

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It was after that date a series of abusive messages were posted publicly on the photo-sharing service Instagram featuring pictures of Mr Cozmiuc, his friends and his family, the court was told.

Several of these were homophobic in nature, using abusive words to accompany pictures of Mr Cozmiuc with Andrei Bourceanu, who had also lived at the Carter Road home.

Giving evidence at Birmingham Crown Court, Mr Bourceanu said it could 'only' have been Amin who had posted the messages.

He said: "They started to appear after he left and the messages can be made only by him because we had no trouble here in England for as long as we stayed.

"The only problem we had was this one, that he eventually didn't want to leave."

It's alleged the Instagram messages were posted from five different accounts which could be linked.

Romanian Mr Cozmiuc, who worked at Amazon in Rugeley, was killed on September 3. Amin, of Merridale Street West, denies his murder. The jury was previously told Amin was convicted of murder in Sweden.

He described Deren Omar Mohammed as his 'brother' before shooting him in the head in January 2008, they were told.

Previously the two men lived with each other and shared a car.

The trial continues.