Daniel Wallace murder: Victim's father tells trial of moment he found his son's body
The father of a man brutally murdered in his own flat has told how his son was cold to the touch after he found him dead.
Daniel Indiga Wallace, 24, was found face down and covered in blood on the living room floor in his flat in Fisher Street, Tipton, by his father Balbinder Dhariwal on November 11 last year.
Mr Dhariwal shared his horror and shock with the jury at Birmingham Crown Court, where Sam Arnold, 21, is facing trial for Mr Wallace's murder.
He said: "I hadn't spoken to him for a few days, I had been trying to get hold of him. We normally spoke every day."
Prosecutor David Mason QC asked: "Did you speak often because he suffered from schizophrenia and had mental health issues?" Mr Dhariwal replied: "I was worried about him, but we were close."
He continued: "It would have been his 25th birthday. I expected to have heard from him so I went round. I let myself in and saw him lying there in the living room."
Mr Jo Sidhu QC, defending Arnold, asked: "Did you touch him?" Mr Dhariwal said that he had, and: "When I touched him he was cold. There was blood everywhere, even on the ceiling."
After finding Mr Wallace, who the prosecution accept was a known cocaine and cannabis user and dealer in the area, his father called his nephew Amrik and son Baljit, who rushed to the flat.
Mr Dhariwal said: "I was hysterical, I was pacing forwards and backwards. Everyone thought I was joking when I told them on the phone."
He also said the he noticed his son's dumbbells and a baseball bat which Mr Wallace kept in his flat were not at the scene.
Neighbour Idalena Lopes heard the grief stricken screams of Mr Dhariwal. She said: "I heard screaming from his flat, the person sounded very upset and distressed. I went outside and saw his father, his cousin, another man and Craig. "They were shocked and crying.
"Sometimes I would hear him screaming in his flat. I went round once to ask if he was OK and he said yes. He was always respectful to me. He was a good person."
Another neighbour Craig Day told the court how he was smashed with a hammer outside his own flat in a gang attack in May last year, and that the area hasn't been the same since Mr Wallace's death.
He said: "It doesn't feel safe to go out. People are still talking about it. I was attacked last year and have been suffering from anxiety and depression ever since.
"When they found Danny his family were in bits. They didn't tell me what exactly had happened, all they told me was that he was dead. They wanted to know if I knew anything."
Arnold, of Slater Street, Tipton, denies murder and the trial continues.
