THEY were like "a pack of wolves, going in for the kill".
That was how a tearful woman described the moments when a gang attacked a Huddersfield taxi driver, beating him to death.
Beverley Lockwood, of Golcar, was giving evidence for the prosecution yesterday in the trial of six teenagers accused of murdering
42-year-old Birkby taxi driver Mohammed Parvaiz.
Christopher Murphy, 18, Michael Hand, 19, Graeme Slavin, 18, two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old – who cannot be named for legal reasons - all deny charges of murdering the father-of-three at Field Head in Golcar on July 22 this year.
Murphy and Hand had admitted violent disorder.
Mr Parvaiz was lured to the quiet cul-de-sac, thinking he was picking up a fare.
Mrs Lockwood told the jury that windows at the back of her house on Moorcroft Avenue overlook Field Head.
She said she was in her bedroom at the front of the house when she heard a loud bang and shouting just after 11.20pm.
She went to the bathroom window at the back of the house to look out and through a small open gap at the bottom of the window, she saw youths drag Mr Parvaiz out of the driver's door of his Lockwood Taxis minibus.
He disappeared from her view, onto the ground.
She said: "There was lots of shouting and I heard a scream. It was like a scream for help, a frightened scream."
She then saw sticks being raised into the air and lowered, in a beating action. She said she also saw the upper bodies of four youths lean down and straighten up, several times.
She said: "I understood somebody was being attacked.
" They were just like a pack of wolves going in for the kill. They didn't care. They didn't stop.
"Not one of them stopped to tell the other not to do it.
"What I saw was so frightening and someone dying. He didn't deserve it, he didn't retaliate, he didn't have chance to."
Mrs Lockwood ran into the room of her 20-year-old daughter Rebecca, which also faces onto Field Head.
She saw four youths wearing hoods, but could not tell if they were the same four as before or their gender.
She said they were all tall, around 5ft 9 inches, and had slim builds.
She said they were standing around six inches away from where Mr Parvaiz lay, shouting over him.
She went into her bedroom to get her mobile and dialled 999.
As she spoke to the police, she walked back into her daughter's room and saw the youths running away from the scene.
Her daughter ran outside to help Mr Parvaiz and Mrs Lockwood followed.
She cried as she told the jury how he was found in the road.
"He was on his front. His left arm was up over his head and his right arm was down to his side, twisted. His head was bleeding."
Her daughter Rebecca also gave evidence yesterday.
She told the jury she had been vacuuming in her room and had heard shouting.
She went to her bedroom window to close her blinds and saw a group of young men on a path leading from Moorcroft Avenue to Field Head. They were all in dark clothes, except one in a red hooded top. They all had hoods or caps on.
She went away from the window and then heard male voices shout "Let's call a taxi" and "Let's go to Visage".
After 11.20pm, she turned off the vacuum and went for a shower. As she came back to her room, she heard a car pull up, then a loud bang.
She pulled back her blind and saw a tall, skinny male pick up a brick and hurl it at the windscreen of the taxi.
She said other males were hitting the driver's side windows of the taxi with sticks.
She was not able to say exactly how many were in the group, but she thought there were about seven.
The one who had thrown the brick then went around to the driver's side door, which was partially open, and reached in through the open window to pull the driver out.
She said: "There were a couple more just pulling him out by the top of his body.
"All I saw after that was the taxi driver getting pulled on to the floor and sticks moving up and down."
She said stones were being thrown at Mr Parvaiz and he was being punched.
She heard one of the youth shout a racist insult at Mr Parvaiz.
She heard one of the youths say "Nice one mate" before two of the group ran away to Leymoor Road. The rest went in the opposite direction, towards fields.
As she went to help Mr Parvaiz, Miss Lockwood phoned her boyfriend and Lockwood Taxis to tell them what had happened.
She said the incident had happened in a matter of seconds.
The trial continues.
