Two guilty of Gurmail Singh’s murder in Cowcliffe

Oct 22 2010 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

TWO men have been found guilty of the brutal murder of beloved shopkeeper Gurmail Singh.

Nabeel Shafi, 18, of Park Hill, Bradley, and Muawaz Khalid, 20, of Blackmoorfoot Road, Crosland Moor, were yesterday convicted of the February 20 killing by the jury of nine women and three men at Bradford Crown Court.

Khalid was also found guilty of robbery, a charge Shafi had already admitted.

Their accomplice, pictured below, Umare Aslam, 20, of Coniston Avenue, Dalton, was also found guilty of robbery.

He and 18-year-old Rehman Afzal, of Jacinth Court, Fartown – who had already admitted robbery – were both acquitted of murder.

Shoaib Khan (pictured), also 18 and of Calton Street, Hillhouse, was found not guilty of both murder and robbery. He had already admitted assisting an offender.

All five men showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out shortly after 11.30am – almost exactly 48 hours after the jury had started their deliberations.

There was little reaction from family and friends of both the victim and the accused who sat in the public gallery.

The judge, Mr Justice Henriques, told the five they would be sentenced on November 16.

He told the jury: “You have been remarkably conscientious and impressive.

“The verdicts you have returned couldn’t possibly be criticised by anybody.”

Mr Singh, a 63-year-old grandfather-of-five, was attacked during a botched robbery at his shop, Cowcliffe Convenience Stores on Cowcliffe Hill Road, on the night of February 20.

During the six-week trial, the jury heard how the gang may have had the idea for a raid following an unrelated robbery at Mr Singh’s shop just two days earlier.

Four of them went to the store, but when Mr Singh tried to resist, bottles of wine were snatched from the shelves and used to bludgeon him repeatedly in the head.