Express & Star

Dudley taxi boss murder trial falling behind due to huge CCTV evidence

The painstaking process of laying out hundreds of CCTV pictures of the eight suspects charged with the murder of a popular taxi firm manager has delayed the trial.

Published
Mr Zeb was aged 39 and had four children

Detective Sergeant Andrew McDonald has been giving evidence for more than two weeks now and has yet to be cross examined.

Nine people are on trial over the death of shooting victim Mohammed Zeb in January.

Lawyers for the defendants have raised the spectre of the prosecution case not being finished before Christmas.

The case itself was meant to finish in mid January but will now not conclude until mid February.

The large number of defendants, eight charged with conspiracy to murder and another charged with assisting an offender, and the massive amount of CCTV footage recovered by the police has seen the trial fall behind.

Videos being taken from doorbell cameras and petrol station CCTV cameras also make part of the case.

Det Sgt McDonald has said he has spent more than 1,000 hours putting together his evidence.

He said: "I look at all the different facets of CCTV. I also have to compare the profiles that I am looking for whilst going backwards and forwards, and stopping the video.

"These are critical for the prosecution and that is why I had to take so long to do them. My source material is the raw footage from all the cameras."

Mr Mohammed was fatally shot on January 31 this year as part of a long running feud between two families.

The prosecution said the defendants had rented a "safehouse" in Rotton Park Road, Edgbaston, where they could organise the execution.

Det Sgt McDonald showed the jury several pictures of several of the defendants outside the property where he said takeaways had been called to.

The eight men on trial for conspiracy to murder are all said to be part of a gang from the Claughton area of Dudley which has been in a feud with a family from Himley Road.

The row allegedly escalated from street disorder with knives to murder and maiming.

The following eight suspects, all from Dudley, are on trial charged with conspiracy to murder:

  • Hassan Tasleem, 24, of Richmond Road

  • Arkarsh Tasleem, 26, of Shaw Road

  • Choudhary Naheim Rashid, 47, of Kingswinford Road

  • Choudhary Akeel Hussain, 21, of Brooke Stree

  • Gurdeep Sandhu, 23, of Blowers Green Road

  • Mohammed Rafiq, 20, of Gammage Street

  • Umar Ali, 20, of Blowers Green Road

  • Shamraz Ali, 20, of Tanfield Road

A ninth suspect is believed to have fled the country before he could be arrested.

Rashid, Sandhu, Hassan Tasleem and Umar Ali are also charged with possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Sanna Iqbal, 27, of Hordern Road, Wolverhampton, is charged with assisting an offender - relating to Hassan Tasleem.

All nine deny the charges and the trial continues.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.