Murder trial told Uber driver ran over Basildon manhttps://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/266090 ... ildon-man/An enraged Uber driver deliberately ran over a south Essex customer who had just been sick in his car, a murder trial has been told.
Hayadulla Turkmani is charged with mowing down Basildon man Michael Ashton outside his own home after he got “a small amount” of vomit on the back seat of the car.
He and his partner went inside and found cleaning wipes, which they then used to mop up the mess, said prosecutor Andrew Jackson, but Turkmani continued yelling abuse and ran him over anyway.
“The prosecution case is that he had done that in sheer anger and rage, choosing to use his car as a weapon and intentionally aiming it at Mr Ashton, driving it forwards and into him,” said the barrister.
The forced snapped Mr Ashton’s leg and sent him toppling backwards, headfirst into the pavement, causing a fatal brain injury, jurors heard.
Mr Ashton, 28, made “repeated and desperate shouts for him to stop”, Mr Jackson alleged, but Turkmani “chooses to continue driving forward, with the consequences that would have been obvious to him and, say the prosecution, were intended by him.
“On any view, say the prosecution, this was not an accident.”
Turkmani, 53, of Langdale Gardens in Hornchurch, then tried to accelerate away, dragging Mr Ashton’s body underneath his Toyota, Mr Jackson alleged.
The Uber driver has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, manslaughter and causing death by dangerous driving. He is being aided in the dock by an Afghan Dari interpreter.
A jury of seven men and five women was sworn in to decide his fate on Monday afternoon – a year and a day after Mr Ashton’s death.
Essex Police were called to Rosecroft Close in Langdon Hills at 11.59pm on Friday, September 26 2025, to a report that Mr Ashton had been hit by a car.
The Barking and Dagenham Council worker lived in the road with his partner.
Mr Jackson said the couple had spent “an enjoyable evening out” in Havering, having dinner with Mr Ashton’s sister before visiting a few bars.
At around 11pm, the couple requested an Uber from Frankie’s Wine Bar in Hornchurch, to take them home to Basildon.
It was “an uneventful journey”, said Mr Jackson, until Mr Ashton became nauseous as they pulled off of the Arterial Road towards Langdon Hills. “He tried to open the rear window of the taxi but nausea overcame him,” the prosecutor said.
“Understandably, Mr Ashton was embarrassed. He immediately apologised to the defendant. “A passenger being ill in the back of a taxi is undoubtedly annoying for the driver of the taxi but the defendant, you will hear, was a good deal more than annoyed at the inconvenience. “You will hear that at that point, he became immediately angry and he began shouting at Mr Ashton for the remainder of that journey.”
After dropping the couple in Rosecroft Close, said Mr Jackson, Turkmani drove his automatic Toyota Prius into and then over Mr Ashton. That will be proved during the trial by a neighbour who saw it from his window, data from the Prius’s own black box and audio captured from a nearby doorbell camera, the prosecutor claimed.
As Mr Ashton fell backwards onto the pavement, the back of his skull fractured and his brain was propelled forwards, fracturing the front of his skull too. That caused “a severe and fatal brain injury”.
“As Mr Ashton lay fatally injured beneath the defendant’s Uber, the defendant got out of the taxi,” Mr Jackson said. “He looked beneath the car. He must have seen Mr Ashton’s body. He then got back into his car. He then accelerated forwards, needless to say, causing the body of Mr Ashton to be dragged underneath.”
When police arrived, Turkmani told them, “He ran in front of my car,” jurors heard – but later answered “no comment” in interview.
Mr Ashton was transported to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, where he died on October 4 2025.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
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