A HEAVILY-pregnant teenager told a court how a youth accused of a savage murder had threatened her Asian boyfriend with a knife the month before.
Stacy Temple told a jury at Leeds Crown Court that Christopher Murphy threatened her boyfriend, Mohammad Amin, and his friend Mack - who are both Asian - with a knife on June 10.
Taxi driver Mohammad Parvaiz, a father-of-three from Birkby, was beaten to death in Golcar on July 22.
Murphy, 18, Michael Hand, 19, Graeme Slavin, 18, two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons are on trial accused of his murder.
They all deny the charge.
Yesterday 18-year-old Miss Temple told the court about the June 10 incident when she said Murphy targeted her boyfriend and his friend.
She said: "When they were coming back from the corner shop Chris got off his scooter and pulled out a blade.
"Mohammad came back up to my flat and shouted at Mack to leave it and come inside."
She said that later that day, at around 8.30pm, the three of them heard a loud bang outside the door.
Miss Temple said: "There was quite a lot of people trying to get in. They told me to open the door or they would come through it.
"They took a hammer and smashed one of the door panes."
Five minutes later Miss Temple said she heard people shouting up to her flat.
She said: "They were shouting `Paki' and saying they shouldn't be in this area.
"They chucked a brick up to my window and smashed it."
Miss Temple said she recognised the voices of Murphy and Slavin.
She rang the police, but by the time they came the group had left.
After speaking to police for 30 minutes Miss Temple, Mr Amin and Mack left in a taxi.
They returned in a taxi the following day, along with Mack's two brothers, to collect his bike, which he had left in the flat.
He retrieved his bike, but then went with his two brothers towards Murphy's flat.
Miss Temple said: "There was a lot of shouting and I heard glass smashing.
"Mack and his brothers were shouting `white bastards'.
During this time the taxi driver drove a short distance down the road. "He seemed anxious and scared," said Miss Temple.
The driver then took the group back to Lockwood Taxis depot.
Under defence cross-examination Miss Temple admitted her boyfriend had been violent towards her and that some of the defendants knew this.
She also said she had not told police about the knife incident when they came to see her on June 10.
Earlier yesterday Sonya Lowell continued giving evidence.
She told the court on Wednesday how she had seen the murder from her mother's house on Moorcroft Avenue in Golcar.
While being cross-examined she denied that any of the gang of six had run off halfway through the attack.
Mrs Lowell said: "When I shouted down to them that I had called the police they all ran off.
"I don't accept that any of them ran off before that."
She also denied that one of the attackers, whom she had earlier described as small with a high-pitched voice, could have been female.
Mrs Lowell said: "It was a male."
The trial continues.
