Beeston murder trial: Jury retires to consider verdicts on brothers accused of revenge attack on man stabbed to death outside shop

Leeds Crown Court has heard how Keith Harrower died from a knife wound to his neck after being lured to the area believing he was going to buy drugs.

Prosecutors allege Mr Harrower was subjected to a 'joint attack' by brothers Omar Ishaq and Kearon Barker.

Jurors have heard Ishaq inflicted a single fatal knife blow to Mr Harrower's neck outside the Premier convenience store on Dewsbury Road, Beeston.

Mr Harrower, 40, died a short time after the incident on December 12, 2019.

The court heard the brothers tried to flee the country later that day by boarding a ferry to Amsterdam but were unable to travel as Ishaq did not have a passport.

Barker, 31, of Cardinal Crescent, Beeston, and Ishaq, 34, Low Lane, Horsforth, plead not guilty to murder.

Barker also pleads not guilty to possessing an offensive weapon.

Ishaq has already pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon in relation to the incident.

The court was told Mr Harrower was a drug user who had bought drugs from Barker in the past.

Mr Harrower, also known as Joshua French or 'Frenchie', rang Barker, nicknamed 'Kinky', on the day of the killing to arrange to buy drugs.

Prosecutor Toby Hedworth QC said the defendants went to the area and "laid in wait" for Mr Harrower before attacking him.

CCTV footage showed them standing in a side street shortly before the incident.

Mr Harrower turned up with his friend and was attacked outside the shop moments later.

Opening the case at the start of the trial, Mr Hedworth said: "Mr Harrower was stabbed in the neck by Omar Ishaq.

"The prosecution say that was after Mr Harrower had been distracted by a conversation with Kearon Barker.

"That single stab wound was probably inflicted with a kitchen knife with a six or seven-inch long blade taken to the scene by the defendants.

"It penetrated deeply into the neck with, at the very least say the prosecution, an intention to cause very serious injury or, with all likelihood, killing him. "

Mr Harrower's friend described how Barker said "we got robbed last night" shortly before his brother inflicted the knife wound.

The prosecutor added: "The whole incident lasted no more than a few seconds and must have been, say the prosecution, a joint plan to attack Keith Harrower with a knife."

The attack was captured on a CCTV camera from the store.

Outlining Ishaq's defence case to the jury, his barrister, Kama Melly QC, said her client accepted being unlawfully in possession of a knife but did not intend to kill Mr Harrower with the weapon.

She said: "It is right that Omar Ishaq accepts that it was him that caused that fatal injury to Mr Harrower.

"We say that on the facts of this case, although Omar Ishaq admits that it was him, and him alone, that inflicted the fatal injury, he remains not guilty of murder.

"The offence of murder is proved not simply by determining who inflicted that injury.

"At that time Omar Ishaq inflicted that injury he did not do so with intention to cause serious harm or to kill.

"It is his case that, fearing that his brother was about to be seriously attacked, he struck Mr Harrower once as an instinctive and preemptive attack."

Simon Myerson QC, for Barker, told the jury: "Kearon Barker did not know what was going to happen.

"He had no knife.

"It is the prosecution's case that Mr Barker 'must have known'. That is not evidence. That is just an assertion."

"After the incident Mr Barker ran away. He was with his brother when the stabbing happened.

"He ran away with his brother.

"He was the man with his passport who did not leave the country.

"Throughout the investigation he sought to protect his brother.

Mr Myerson added: "He did it because he wanted to protect his brother. Because he was frightened. That does not make him guilty of anything.

"It definitely doesn't make him guilty of murder."