Gang murder trial told of gear stick DNA left after Chinese takeaway crash
A man alleged to have taken part in the gang murder of a father-of-four after an ambush outside a Chinese takeaway left incriminating DNA evidence at the scene, it is claimed.
Swabs taken from the van used by the armed group showed 69 per cent of the DNA found on the gear stick belonged to 21-year-old Nabeel Choudhary.
The vehicle, abandoned outside the Golden City in Lower Gornal with the engine running, was immediately sealed by forensic officers against contamination.
DNA from four people was discovered on the gear stick but none matching that of Choudhary's co-defendant Akarsh Tasleem, 24, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
Damien Lyall, a forensic scientist, told the jury the reading produced was a billion times more likely if the DNA came from Choudhary and three others rather than from four unknown individuals.
Both Choudhary and Akarsh claim they were not at the scene of the murder on December 4 last year when 34-year-old Yasir Hussain was hacked to death by a mob from a rival family.
Mr Lyall was asked about the possibility of Choudhary not having been in the van, and the chances of his DNA already being in the vehicle before the incident.
He replied: "It doesn't seem to fit well with the finding we've got."
Mr Hussain was a passenger in a car being driven by his cousin Morrad Hussain, believed to be the intended target, when it was rammed in Central Drive.
He was seized and stabbed to death while his cousin escaped on foot and raised the alarm.
The trial has heard that the murder was the tragic outcome of a year-long feud between two local families which had seen an escalation in violence between them.
More coverage of the trial:
Residents alerted by the sound of a crash at about 9.45pm saw between seven and 10 men with weapons running up the street and piling into an Audi and a Honda Jazz which then drove off.
Yasir Hussain, from Burnley, who was visiting family in Dudley at the time, was found by paramedics with two knife wounds and a slash injury thought to have been from a machete.
The fatal strike, from a knife, was 18 centimetres deep and had pierced his heart from behind.
Choudhary, of Hope Street, West Bromwich, and Tasleem, of Broadway West, in Walsall, both deny murder.
Choudhary also pleads not guilty to attempted grievous bodily harm and dangerous driving on November 26 and possession of an imitation firearm with intent, while Tasleem denies possession of a machete.
The trial continues.
