DPD murder suspect caught on helicopter camera dumping bloodied axe
One of the men accused of the murder of a DPD worker killed by a gang of men in Shrewsbury last year, was seen dumping a bloodied axe in a wheelie bin by a police helicopter, a court has heard.
Aurman Singh of Topsham Road, Smethwick, died in Berwick Avenue, Coton Hill on Monday, August 21 last year.
The 23-year-old had been been attacked by two gangs of men who had travelled from the Black Country to Shropshire in a grey Audi and a white Mercedes, Stafford Crown Court had previously heard.
In the second week of the murder trial of four Black Country men and a man from Peterborough accused of the DPD worker's murder, the jury was read police interviews taken from one of the defendants in the days following the attack.
Arshdeep Singh, 24, of Shaw Road in Tipton, was quizzed multiple times by police following the death of Aurman Singh.
The court had already heard how he blamed the gang in the Mercedes for the attack and said he had only been in Shrewsbury to meet someone his friend, Manjot Singh - another of the defendants - had known.
Arshdeep Singh had denied assaulting Aurman Singh and said he had only got out of the Audi armed with a golf club in Berwick Avenue to help defend the DPD driver but he and the others in the Audi had fled in fear from the men in the Mercedes.
Four of the men standing trial had been arrested by police in Tipton less than two hours after the attack, after a police helicopter had followed the grey Audi A5 after it had left Shrewsbury.
On Thursday, the jury was read a statement from Arshdeep Singh, recorded as he was shown footage from the police helicopter, as it filmed them over Amphlett Croft in Tipton, minutes before they were picked up by police.
The video showed Arshdeep Singh getting out of the grey Audi, opening the boot of the car and removing an item wrapped in a grey hoodie, which he dumped in a wheelie bin.
When asked what it was he had dumped in the bin, Arshdeep Singh told police: "I have no idea. It was wrapped in a hoodie."
Asked why he dumped the item in the wheelie bin, he said he had acted "under duress" and was scared of the other three men in the Audi.
He said: "They said to me 'there's something in the boot and we need you to go and take it and put it in the bin'. I said at first I was not going to do it. I was very scared, so I went and took it out the boot and put it in the bin."
The item was later recovered by police and found to be a blue and black axe bought from hardware store Wicks. It had been "heavily stained" with Aurman Singh's blood.
The jury had already head from forensic expert Stephen Paddock who told them the hoodie contained the DNA of two of the defendants, Jagdeep and Shivdeep Singh, and the axe also had traces of Jagdeep Singh's DNA on the bloodied handle.
Arshdeep Singh was then shown footage taken from the same police helicopter as officers swooped to arrest the four men in the Audi. The car was seen on video footage swerving around a police stinger device designed to puncture the car's tyres. It was then followed by officers until it reached a roundabout on Park Lane West, where it pulled over and the four occupants got out. Officers with dogs then moved in and arrested the men.
Arshdeep Singh denied knowing most of the men in the Audi or travelling with them to Shrewsbury to attack Aurman Singh.
He was then shown footage taken from a doorbell camera in Shaw Road, Tipton, outside his home address, which showed the Audi and its occupants assembling outside his house on the morning of the attack.
Arshdeep Singh told interviewing officers he had not been there that morning and had been at a friend's house.
But after being shown footage of a person outside the property wearing the same black top, black tracksuit and white trainers he was arrested in later that day, he admitted the man in the video was him.
He was then shown footage from a petrol station in Dudley Port where the Audi and Mercedes pulled up together for fuel later that morning.
He denied knowing the men in the Mercedes and that the two cars were travelling to Shrewsbury together.
Arshdeep Singh, 24, of Shaw Road in Tipton; Shivdeeep Singh, 26, of Greenfield Road in Smethwick; Manjot Singh, 24, also of Greenfield Road; Jagdeep Singh, 22, of Goodrich Mews in Dudley; and Sukhmandeep Singh, 23, from Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, all deny murder.
Four other men Harpreet Singh, Mehakdeep Singh, Harwinder Singh Turna and Sehajpal Singh are still wanted by police in connection with the attack.
The trial before Judge Kristina Montgomery KC continues.
