Gurmukh Singh 'left for dead on doorstep after violent beating'
A 70-year-old man was thrown from a house where he had been beaten up and left to die outside the front door, a jury heard.
Gurmukh Singh had been on a drinking spree with 51-year-old Palvinder Hayre who was one of three tenants living at the address in White Road, Smethwick, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
A CCTV camera captured the moment the victim was pitched face down on to the property’s footpath just inches from the pavement shortly after 1pm on November 23.
The film – shown to the jury – was shot from overhead and showed just a grey trouser leg of the person who ejected the victim.
This matched the jogging bottoms seen in earlier footage being worn by Hayre, said Mr David Mason QC, prosecuting.
Those were found to have the blood of the victim on them which an expert said had been airborne, indicating the wearer had been involved in some sort of assault.
“The body was unceremoniously dumped on the front door step of his house in the afternoon and stayed there for about half an hour before it was seen but had received such a violent beating that there was nothing that could have been done to save him,” added the prosecutor.
Paramedics were called to the scene and took the victim to City Hospital where he was certified dead soon afterwards.
He had 19 fractures to his ribs, a fracture to his breast bone and damage to the area around his throat.
The alcohol level in his blood was almost four times the drink drive limit.
The pathologist concluded he had been subjected to a blunt force assault causing fatal injury to the chest with the right lung collapsing after being punctured.
Mr Singh had been in this country for many years but had three applications for permission to remain permanently rejected and was due to return to India on December 5 last year.
He was living with his sister in Kings Heath but had been introduced to Hayre by a mutual friend.
They were both heavy drinkers and he went to see him on November 22, staying overnight because he felt too drunk to travel back to Birmingham.
“We cannot help you with exactly what happened but this defendant has violently beaten this 70-year-old man before dumping him outside to die,” Mr Mason told the jury.
Hayre pleads not guilty to murder and the case continues.
