Taxi driver used paving slab to defend his family in brawl, court heardA TAXI driver picked up a concrete paving slab to defend his family during a violent disturbance in an East Staffordshire street, a court has heard.
Naeem Akhtar said he had been faced with people coming towards him with weapons outside his home in Shobnall Street, Burton, and wanted to get them to retreat.
The 43-year-old told a jury at Stafford Crown Court that he had dropped the slab when the attackers started to back away as the melee was coming to an end.
Akhtar is one of eight men on trial who all deny a charge of violent disorder in which they used or threatened unlawful violence.
Also in the dock are Akhtar's two brothers, Rehan Akhtar, 27, and 37-year-old Nadeem Akhtar and five other men from a rival family – Mohammed Aqil, 44, Mohammed Wasim Kase, 24, Scott Rafferty, 23, Mohammed Shakil, 45, and his 24-year-old son, Tareem Shakil.
The incident, linked to bad feeling between the two families, started around 8.30pm on June 12 last year when a silver Skoda belonging to Mohammed Shakil was in collision with Nadeem Akhtar's VW Passatt parked outside his house, the court heard.
The jury was told Naeem Akhtar left his house after hearing the sound of the crash and there was a violent clash between the two groups in which weapons were used and bricks were thrown.
Naeem Akhtar told the court his pregnant wife and five children were in the house and he had been attempting to defend his family.
He said he was confronted by Rafferty and Aqil, who he claimed had a weapon held under his coat, but denied he had been brandishing the slab above his head ready to throw it.
At court yesterday, under cross-examination by Emma Fenn, for Rafferty, the defendant claimed he had been using the slab as a shield.
"I was afraid and frightened and felt threatened," he said.
"I never threw the slab. I was holding it and saying, 'get back, get back' and I put it on the ground. It was too heavy to keep it above my head and I lowered it."
Naeem Ahktar said he had tried to grab Rafferty because he was coming towards him, his home and his family.
He said Rafferty wriggled out of his coat and retreated. "I was left with his coat in my hand," he said.
Questioned by Lawrence Henderson, for Mohammed Aqil, he said he did not see his brother Nadeem Akhtar hitting the windscreen of the Skoda with a bat.
He accepted saying in a statement to police that Mohammed Shakil and two other people had jumped from the Skoda and had a machete and other weapons, and were 'all tooled up'.
Mr Henderson suggested that Aqil was at the scene but did not have a weapon and had taken off his belt to use the buckle end if necessary.
"No, it was a weapon. It was being waved behind his clothing. I could see who had it. It was Aqil," said Akhtar.
Under cross examination by Anthony Potter, prosecuting, Akhtar denied he and his brothers had 'created a fiction' to tell police the opposing group had weapons, that the crash had been deliberate and that his brothers were attacked.
He also denied joining the melee as it was calming down and that he was angry, and his actions had reignited the disturbance.
The trial has been adjourned and is due to resume on Wednesday next week.
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