Advertisement

Man stabbed to death after wrongly being accused of stealing a bike, court told

A man was stabbed to death by cousins after wrongly being accused of stealing a bike, a court heard.

Mikhail Hanid, 47, suffered multiple stab wounds in the attack on Ridgeway Avenue in Weston-super-Mare on June 27 this year.

Bristol Crown Court heard Mr Hanid was taken to hospital but died three days later.

Following his death, cousins Curtis Ford, 27, and Samuel Ford, 30, were charged with murder.

Curtis Ford has since pleaded guilty to murdering Mr Hanid, while Samuel Ford denies the charge.

Kate Brunner QC, prosecuting, told jurors that the cousins had “hunted down” Mr Hanid and stabbed him repeatedly.

“The prosecution say that Samuel Ford killed a man because he thought that man had stolen his bike,” Ms Brunner said.

“Samuel Ford didn’t do it alone. It was he and his cousin Curtis Ford who together, the prosecution say, killed a man.

“They hunted that man down and they stabbed him repeatedly. They were charged jointly with murder.

“One of the cousins, Curtis Ford, has pleaded guilty to murder and so he is not here because he is not on trial.”

Ms Brunner told the court that Mr Hanid did not know either Samuel or Curtis Ford, who lived together on Baildon Road in Weston-super-Mare.

On June 25, Mr Hanid spent the afternoon with friends, including a woman named Lizzie Crow, in the town.

Later that day, Miss Crow met up with Samuel Ford and they went to her home. He later realised his bike was missing.

Ms Brunner said Samuel Ford “immediately blamed” the people who Miss Crow had been with that afternoon, including Mr Hanid.

The court heard another man in that group had in fact taken the bike and tried to sell it on.

Samuel Ford made “aggressive inquiries” to establish who had stolen his bike and asked for the contact details of Miss Crow’s friends.

He and Curtis Ford decided to “track down” Mr Hanid and went to the area where he lived, Ms Brunner said.

Mr Hanid was “wrongly identified” as the thief and was attacked in a street near his home “in a brutal act of misdirected punishment and retribution”, she told the jury.

Police were called to the scene at 12.10am on June 27 and found Mr Hanid “lying in the gutter” having lost a significant amount of blood, she told jurors.

Mr Hanid was found to have suffered 11 stab wounds, including two to the right side of his torso.

Samuel Ford denies murder. He is on trial with Dominic Palmer, 31, who denies a charge of assisting an offender.

The trial continues.