Riot victims ‘mown down and killed in chariot-style charge’Summer riot victims targeted by ‘modern-day chariot charge’

Three men who died after they were deliberately targeted by a car during last summer’s riots were murdered in a modern-day “chariot charge” after days of simmering tensions, a court heard.

Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court heard that Haroon Jahan, 20, and brothers Shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31, were hit by a Mazda car during disorder in the Winson Green area of Birmingham in the early hours of 10 August, as disorder swept across England.

Loud gasps were heard in the court as CCTV footage of the fatal impact was shown, and the victims’ family members sobbed in the public gallery.

The images clearly show the three men being flung into the air after being hit by the car. They were pronounced dead in hospital.

Prosecutor Tim Spencer QC, who warned the jury about the “shocking circumstances”, said: “The driving you have just seen was not chance, it was not accidental.

“It was deliberate and co-ordinated. It was the modern-day equivalent of a chariot charge. And it was deadly.”

Moments after the footage was shown, a heated argument broke out in the public gallery, leading the judge, Mr Justice Flaux, to clear the court for a short time.

Ryan Goodwin, 21, Shaun Flynn, 26, Juan Ruiz-Gaviria, 31, Joshua Donald, 27, Everton Graham, 30, Adam King, 24, Ian Beckford, 30, and Aaron Parkins, 18, all deny three counts of murder.

Jurors heard that on the evenings of 8 and 9 August local businesses, including mobile phone shops, a petrol station and a social club, were targeted by rioters.

Mr Spencer said the fatal collision followed days of growing tension in the area between gangs of youths in cars and crowds of mostly Asian men from the community.

He said: “All of the men in the dock must have been aware of that backdrop, the backdrop that was the reality of this area of Birmingham over the period we are concerned with.”

Mr Spencer told the court that some of a group of between 50 and 100 Asian men on the streets were armed with sticks, batons and bats, and that other members of the Asian group had picked up bricks or rocks after beginning to gather at around 9:30pm on 9 August to prevent looters from targeting local businesses.

Mr Spencer told the court the defendants were in three separate black cars: a Ford Fiesta, a Mazda and an Audi A3 Sport Quattro.

He said the three cars convened in Dugdale Street, close to the scene of the collision in Dudley Road, moments before to “finalise the plan”.

The prosecutor said: “It was an opportunity to finalise the plan.

“Here, in Dugdale Street, was an opportunity to say: ‘I want nothing of what is about to happen, let me out of this car’.

“But that is not what happened. All those eight men stayed in one or other of those three cars as they progressed down Dugdale Street and carried out their deadly task.”

The Audi can be seen in the CCTV footage swerving as it travels along the road, while the other two vehicles hold back.

Moments later an arm is extended from the driver’s side of the Mazda car.

The prosecutor asked the jury: “Did you see the arm? It is a signal. A signal to those in the Fiesta, particularly the driver, to go.

“That driving was murder and nothing less.”

The trial continues.