A WITNESS has described how a racist teenage gang murdered an innocent Asian taxi driver in a frenzied attack which was "like hell had been let loose".
Sonya Lowell told Leeds Crown Court how she saw father-of-three Mohammad Parvaiz, 42, beaten to death on July 22 this year.
Mrs Lowell, who was visiting her mother's home in Golcar, Huddersfield, told how she had seen a gang of 12 youngsters hanging about near her home.
She said the gang then split before a group of six young men walked to meet a vehicle as it came into nearby Field Head cul-de-sac.
Choking back tears, she said when the vehicle came in "it had barely stopped and they rushed at it. I could hear the smashing of glass and I could hear objects hitting metal and it was surrounded by the youths breaking all or most of the windows of the vehicle. They surrounded the vehicle, it was like all hell had let loose."
Mrs Lowell could only see the attack, which lasted one or two minutes, from the passenger side of the taxi.
She saw one youngster brandishing a stick in front of the vehicle, who then started hitting the windscreen. She said: "At this time I could see it was serious."
Mrs Lowell, who visits her elderly mother every other weekend from Nottingham, was so horrified she shouted to the gang: "I have called the police." One of the smaller youngsters shouted: "She has called the police" as a warning to the others and they all ran away, the court heard.
Mrs Lowell told the jury: "The one that had the stick, he started to run, taking a few paces, then as an afterthought turned back and kicked something on the floor. I could not see what he was kicking. I could not see because the body of the vehicle was in the way.
"At the same time the smaller one emulated the taller one. He saw him kick the object so he went and did the same."
After the attack Mrs Lowell said the loudest person of the group "was shouting, he sounded jubilant".
Mrs Lowell told how she thought the group were just going to be a nuisance, but when she saw them getting "into a huddle, I thought that it was more. That something was going to happen."
She initially thought that it may have been a revenge attack over drugs and that the person in the car could have been delivering drugs.
Six youths, Michael Hand, 19, Graeme Slavin, 18, Christopher Murphy, 18, two 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have all pleaded not guilty to the murder. Hand, Slavin and the 17-year-olds have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of violent disorder. The others have denied the charge.
The gang is alleged to have lured the taxi driver in a revenge attack after a feud between their white gang and a rival Asian gang.
The trial continues.
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