A man accused of attempting to murder two men with a gun in Birkby in September 2009 has been found not guilty after a judge threw out the prosecution case against him.
Judge Geoffrey Marson QC was asked to review “inconsistencies” in the evidence of father-of-four Safraz Hussain.
He claimed that Crosland Moor man Yassar Yaqub, 21, had been one of the gunmen who opened fire on the car he was driving along Birkby Hall Road on a Sunday afternoon in September 2009.
At the end of the prosecution case at Bradford Crown Court yesterday (May 11, 2010), Yaqub’s barrister Bryan Cox QC submitted that it would be unsafe to allow the case to continue against his client.
After hearing arguments from counsel, Judge Marson ruled Mr Hussain was one of the least compelling witnesses that he had seen in 35 years.
The judge stressed that the case was an identification one and there was a need for special caution.
He said: “I regard his evidence as being dangerous and it cannot safely, in my view, be left to the jury even if there is some evidence capable of supporting his identification.”
Before discharging the jury, Judge Marson told them that there would be no case against Yaqub without the evidence of Mr Hussain and courts had to treat such cases with very great care.
The judge highlighted the fact that Mr Hussain claimed three men jumped from a car to confront him and his friend Mohammed Naseeb, who was a front seat passenger in the Vauxhall Corsa.
“It is clear from the CCTV footage that only two got out of the car,” said the judge.
Judge Marson also said there was discrepancy in the evidence about whether one of the men was wearing cream-coloured Asian clothing and whether the defendant had been the man seen re-loading the shotgun.
In his evidence to the jury, Mr Hussain also stated that he had never seen any of the men before the incident. Yet in a witness statement he said he knew the men and gave various names, none of which were the defendant’s.
The judge told the jury: “Having assessed the evidence I have come to the view that it is so dangerous that no jury properly directed could safely convict this man on these serious charges and I hope you understand why I have come to that view.”
After discharging the jury the judge formally recorded not guilty verdicts on the two charges of attempted murder and one of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life which Yaqub, of Rudding Street, Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, had denied.
The court had heard that after the incident the damaged Corsa was found to have a large hole in the front bonnet and about 140 pellets from a shotgun had also struck the vehicle.
Mr Hussain later picked out Yaqub during an identification procedure as one of the men who had fired shots at the car.
