Delivery driver was victim of 'ferocious' beating

A delivery driver was murdered outside the Black Country takeaway where he worked just hours before his wife gave birth, a jury has heard.

Muhammed Farooq was given a "ferocious" beating after going to collect wages, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The 40-year-old suffered injuries compatible with "stamps, kicks and blows of that nature," Timothy Raggatt QC told the court. His face was fractured and badly damaged, a neck bone broken, two ribs fractured and teeth dislodged.

Mr Farooq, of Merridale Street West, Wolverhampton, was struck by at least nine "significant" blows, in an attack in a private gated alleyway leading to the rear of Flames takeaway, Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton, where he worked part time for three or four weeks, said Mr Raggatt, prosecuting.

A "commotion" was heard on the night of the attack, on September 28, but the alley was blocked by a man acting like a guard, continued the prosecutor.

Mr Raggatt said the attackers were Ali Wazir, the 31-year-old manager of Flames, his cousins Shakil and Idris Mohammed, who are brothers 25 and 30 respectively, and their neighbour Nasar Abbas, 24.

The four drank whisky in a side room at the takeaway before Mr Farooq arrived to collect wages and followed him into the alley when he left, the jury were told.

Each tried to cover up involvement but was "inevitably and inextricably" linked to it by both scientific evidence and what other people saw and heard, said Mr Raggatt.

After the beating the victim was moved a short distance into Clifton Street where the body was found later that night.

Mr Raggatt said: "The victim left his wife, who was very pregnant indeed and experiencing mild labour pains, perhaps believing that if he went early to collect his wages he would have time to do that and get back before the birth. Very sadly he was much mistaken.

"Why they did it may never be clear but what does matter is that Muhammed Farooq was murdered and the men who did it are sitting in the dock."

The brothers and Abbas, all of St Marks Road, Chapel Ash, and Wazir of Rayleigh Road, Bradmore, all deny murder. The trial continues.