Barristers for the two men accused of murdering a Huddersfield child-killer in his prison cell have both blamed the other defendant.
Gary Smith, 48, and Lee Newell, 44 have both pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the murder of Subhan Anwar, inset, in Long Lartin on February 14.
All three were serving life sentences for murder, and prison officers found Smith and Newell inside 24-year-old Anwar’s cell.
He was jailed for the brutal murder of two-year-old Sanam Navsarka in Riddings Road, Deighton.
Anwar’s body was face-down on his bed, his feet bound with tape and tracksuit bottoms wrapped tight around his neck, after being used to strangle him which they had to be cut free.
Joe Stone QC, for Newell, asked them to consider whether the intention when the two men went into Anwar’s cell with him was to kill him or ‘a situation where both he and Mr Smith intended to take Mr Anwar hostage.’
“What if the true position was that Lee Newell intended to assist Gary Smith take Mr Anwar hostage to assist Mr Smith obtain a transfer out of Long Lartin?
“What if the agreement between them was that Mr Anwar was not to be injured in any way during that enterprise?
“This was a hostage-taking situation which has gone horribly, horribly wrong.”
Jonas Hankin QC, for Smith, pointed out to the jury that Newell “has strangled before.”
“Mr Anwar was murdered; of that there can be absolutely no doubt. I suggest the identity of the perpetrator is equally straight-forward – and it is Lee Newell. He has strangled before and he confessed to killing Mr Anwar to a fellow prisoner.
“The real question is whether or not there was a joint enterprise, whether the strangler and Mr Smith were in it together,” said Mr Hankin, who also said the evidence pointed to it having been a plan to take Anwar hostage.
He said that if a jury could not be sure which of two men had killed someone, both should be acquitted.
