Murder trial told of rape bid

Two men murdered in a Shropshire flat had been trying to rape their alleged killer before he "bashed" their heads in, a court heard today. Accused Sukhdev Singh went "berserk" and lost control, Stafford Crown Court heard.

The jury was told he then attacked 30-year-old Jaswant Singh and Kulwant Singh, 31.

Singh, 27, denies murdering the two men in a flat above Shawbury Fish Bar between December 5 and 8 last year.

Rex Tedd QC, for the defendant, told the jury the two men had a "homosexual and unwelcome interest" in Singh and had raped him on a previous occasion.

He told the trial the two victims had come into the bedroom, stripped to the waist down, and then started trying to rape Singh.

He said: "He doesn't want that and there's a struggle and on the floor by the plug there's a hammer. There's a weapon by chance to hand.

"He just goes berserk, loses control, smashes the one man's head in, hits the other man once."

Mr Tedd said Kulwant Singh ran out on to the landing in the dark, and Singh thought he had gone for a knife.

"There appears not to have been a knife but he's still out of control and the other man had his head bashed in," said Mr Tedd.

Singh took refuge in a temple in Smethwick for a few days, he said, adding that he was "homeless, friendless, pathetic, and desperate".

Mr Tedd said Singh had arrived in the country with only 25 euros in his pocket as an illegal immigrant.

By Deborah Collins

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