Fueding knife victim was BNP activist

A father of seven allegedly stabbed to death by his Asian neighbour was a British National Party activist who had subjected the family next door to years of racial taunts, threats and violence, a murder trial was told yesterday.

Keith Brown's family had helped the far-right party in the local elections in Stoke-on-Trent and Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, attended his funeral, Stafford Crown Court was told.

Mr Brown and his family, none of whom worked, were said to have been jealous of their industrious Pakistani neighbours and to have inflicted a spiral of abuse on them. Habib Khan is accused of stabbing Mr Brown to death with an eight-inch kitchen knife.

Mr Brown's son, Ashley Barker, 20, was asked about his connections with the BNP and said that he had helped at election time. “We have done leafleting for them,” he told the jury. He said that Mr Griffin had not known his father. “What was he doing at the funeral?” Anthony Barker, QC, for Mr Khan, asked. Ashley Barker replied: “Respect for my old man.”

Mr Khan's barrister told the court that Mr Khan's family had amassed their wealth through running a kebab shop. Mr Khan had bought the plot next door to Mr Brown and built a grand house on it. Mr Brown had objected to planning permission but it was granted.

During construction, Mr Brown parked three scrap cars in an access lane to prevent the builders reaching the plot. One morning, Mr Brown and Ashley Barker rose early and tried to knock the building down. They were prosecuted for attacking it with hammers. After all that failed and the Asians' home was completed, Mr Brown shouted to Mr Khan's wife “that she was a Paki bastard, he was going to smash her and her home up”, Mr Khan's barrister said.

Once, when Mr Khan came out of his house, Mr Brown made slashing movements with his finger across his throat. Another time Mr Brown shouted “f***ing Paki” at him. Mr Brown broke windows in the Khans' conservatory. Mr Brown and Ashley Barker were charged with racially aggravated harassment but the case was dropped.

Five months before Mr Brown was killed, Ashley Barker was convicted of causing actual bodily harm to Mr Khan by punching his head three times. During the fracas last July, when Mr Khan is said to have stabbed Mr Brown to death outside their homes, Mr Khan's two sons, both in their twenties, attacked Ashley Barker using a metal pipe and bricks, the court was told. Ashley Barker needed stitches to his head and kneecap.

Ashley Barker was allowed to give evidence screened by a heavy red curtain. He insisted that it was the Khans who were to blame for the bad feeling by lying about events.

The assault conviction arose from a confrontation in which Mr Khan had hit him first, he said. Both families installed closed-circuit television cameras to record what happened outside their houses.

“You and your father had made these people's lives a misery because of your racial hatred and envy,” Mr Khan's barrister said.

Ashley Barker replied: “No, I've got nothing against Asians.” He said that he played football with an Asian friend up the street.

Mr Brown's daughter, Bianca Barker, 18, said that Asian women neighbours laughed as she tended to her father as he bled to death on the pavement. Miss Barker said that female members of the family next door appeared to take pride after Mr Khan plunged a meat-cutting knife five inches into her father's back. A videotape was played showing Miss Barker's tearful interview with police two days after her father was killed.

“I went outside to my dad and I asked him if he was all right but he didn't answer. There were a lot of Asians standing in Mr Khan's yard. A girl started laughing at me,” she said.

Miss Barker ran back into her house to get a blanket to put on her father. A police officer asked Miss Barker what the family next door were doing. “Like they were all happy, proud of what they had done,” she said. “They all seemed to be laughing and cheering.”

Mr Khan denies murder. He and his son, Azir Habib Saddique, deny wounding Ashley Barker. Another son, Khazir Habib Saddique, has admitted wounding Ashley Barker.

The trial continues.

Times Online