Drugged-up party-goer on trial charged with murdering man on Bentilee estate

The latest on the Dalbagh Singh Malhi murder trial:

Jury hear of scuffle on Bentilee estate

PARTY-GOER Lee Shaw murdered a 29-year-old man in an unprovoked street attack, a court heard.

Dalbagh Singh Malhi was stabbed several times during the Bentilee attack with the fatal blow penetrating his heart.

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Shaw, aged 34, of Community Drive, Smallthorne, has gone on trial accused of murdering Mr Malhi.

Stafford Crown Court heard Shaw had been drinking and taking cocaine at a house party in Wellfield Road, Bentilee, in the hours before the stabbing.

The jury was told Shaw had arranged for a taxi to take him home in the early hours of May 13 last year – but the cabbie drove off when he saw the defendant behaving aggressively.

The court heard this angered Shaw, who shortly afterwards saw Mr Malhi and his friend Matthew Poole, who were on their way to a friend's house for a drink.

Robert Price, prosecuting, told the jury: "We say that, plainly fuelled by drink, and or drugs, and or the experience with the taxi, Lee Shaw was wound up considerably.

"He was in the mood for a fight, and started behaving very aggressively.

"Tragically, it was the deceased who took the brunt of that aggression.

"As fate would have it, he happened to be in Wellfield Road at that time."

The court heard Shaw shouted racist abuse at Mr Malhi, which Mr Malhi had laughed off.

The prosecution alleges the defendant then stabbed Mr Malhi with a kitchen knife he had earlier taken from the party.

Mr Malhi, of Beverley Drive, Bentilee, was stabbed several times in the chest, shoulder and neck. The fatal wound – which was 13cm deep – penetrated his heart.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead a short time later.

The court heard that after the attack Shaw left the knife in the kitchen sink of the party house and left through the back door and under a garden fence.

He spent the night at his girlfriend's and was arrested at a friend's house in Ball Green the next day.

The events leading up to the stabbing were seen by several witnesses, none of whom reported seeing any aggressive behaviour by Mr Malhi or Mr Poole.

Shaw accepts he killed Mr Malhi, but denies murder. He claims he acted in self defence.

Mr Price said: "We submit this suggestion is wholly inconsistent and flies in the face of the medical evidence, eye-witness evidence, and the defendant's words and actions after the event.

"We say this was a naked act of aggression perpetrated by a man who must have had an intention to kill his victim, or at the very least an intention to cause his victim really serious injury."

The trial continues.