Revenge gang killed innocent man in bungled attack, court hears

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/08/revenge-gang-killed-innocent-man-bungled-attack

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A gang of hooded men wielding bats and a knife murdered a “totally innocent man” in a bungled revenge attack, a court has heard.

In a case of mistaken identity, Christopher Foster, 34, was stabbed in the back outside a pub in Borough, south London, on 29 November last year.

The attacker, Aytach Lisani, 33, has pleaded guilty to murdering the City porter and father of one. Five more men deny the charge and are on trial at the Old Bailey.

The court heard the group had mistaken Foster for a man called Harry Saunders, whom they believed was responsible for slashing the face of their friend Aydin Salih weeks before.

The prosecutor, David Fisher, told the jury: “On the evening of Friday 29 November last year Christopher Foster was standing with his friend Danny Murphy outside Saint Christopher’s Inn on Borough high street.

“They were having a last drink outside, as were a number of people. The atmosphere in the alleyway was good, but it was interrupted by a group of approximately seven men and a man named Aydin Salih.

“Faces obscured by hoods and scarves, their conduct was menacing, some were carrying bats and at least one knife.

“Christopher Foster had his back to the advancing group until, at the last moment, he turned.

“Danny Murphy believed there would be trouble, but had no idea why. They decided to go back inside the pub, but before they could do so Christopher Foster was stabbed once to the left side of his back, most probably from behind.

“Both men managed to enter the pub but Mr Foster had been seriously injured and collapsed.” He died in hospital an hour and a half later.

Fisher told the jury: “Christopher Foster had not said or done anything at all that could begin to explain why he was stabbed, and you may conclude that he was wrongly believed by a number of these defendants to be a man called Harry Saunders, who was in the same area as Mr Foster and had just weeks earlier apparently slashed the face of Aydin Salih.”

Salih was the cousin of Aytach Lisani, of south-east London, and an associate of others in the group, the court heard. Fisher said: “This was therefore a revenge attack on a man believed to be Harry Saunders, but who was in fact a totally innocent man and a stranger to most of the defendants, if not all of them.”

The attack stemmed from an incident on 20 September last year when Salih was treated at St Thomas’s hospital for a serious facial injury that needed stitches, the court heard. He refused, however, to co-operate with police or substantiate the fact that he had been attacked.

Instead, phone records showed that he contacted Aytach Lisani who in turn phoned his brother Ali Lisani, jurors were told. Meanwhile, Harry Saunders was in custody between 9 and 25 October last year, the court heard.

Billy Dove, 30; Ricky Huggins, 29; Rocky Djelal, 34; and Ali Lisani, 38; all of south-east London, deny murder along with Mohmmed Aalamani, 28, of east London. Michael Gore, 55, and Joanna Stevens, 33, of south-east London, deny perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.