A TEENAGE girl told a court how a taxi driver was called a "stupid Paki" just after he had been beaten to death.

The 16-year-old appeared by video link at Leeds Crown Court yesterday in the trial of six youths accused of killing Birkby father-of-three Mohammad Parvaiz in Golcar on July 22.

Graeme Slavin, Christopher Murphy, and three others who can't be named, deny the charge.

But 19-year-old Michael Hand changed his plea to guilty shortly after the testimony by the girl, who can't be named.

She said she had been drinking in a local park with the accused and several others on the night of the attack.

The girl said she had had some beer, a swig of brandy and a few puffs of cannabis but wasn't drunk.

She said she saw Murphy trying to pressure one of the other girls into calling a taxi to Field Head in Golcar.

The six accused then made their way to Field Head with five girls following a few metres behind.

The girls stood beside a lamppost without a clear view of the boys, who were waiting outside the doctor's surgery on Field Head.

The witness said: "A taxi drove on to the road, I could see its headlights, and then I heard a screeching noise as if the driver had stalled and there was smashing and shouting."

The girls started running and were soon joined by Murphy, Hand, Slavin and two of the younger accused.

She said: "Hand said he had whacked him with a brick and that if he wasn't in a coma he would be dead.

"They didn't seem upset, they were hyper, on an adrenaline rush, but Hand and Murphy seemed it the most.

"I heard one of them say the driver was a stupid Paki and another one mention how he had clung on to his watch.

"Murphy said that he had stamped on the driver's head."

Under defence questioning the girl admitted she hadn't mentioned Murphy's stamping comment in her police statement on July 24. "It came back to me about a week later," she said.

The girl added that she hadn't been expecting the attack. She said: "I thought they were just going to smash a window of the taxi."

The court also watched a recorded statement by another 16-year-old girl who had been drinking with the accused that night.

The tape, made on July 25 at Elland police station, lasted about 40 minutes.

In it the girl said the boys seemed "quite drunk and giddy" before the attack.

The witness had also headed towards Field Head but had not seen the attack. She said: "I heard some banging and shouting and I thought 'what's going on?' I heard someone shout 'you f***ing Paki'.

"We ran, we didn't want to get involved because it sounded awful."

But the girl said she didn't realise the severity of what had just happened.

She said: "I couldn't believe it when my Mum told me the next day that someone had been killed."

Yesterday afternoon - after Hand had changed his plea to guilty - the court heard from two 18-year-old youths who had been drinking in the park with the accused but had played no part in the attack.

One of them denied that any of the accused had invited him to throw a brick.

The trial continues.