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Rochdale Uber driver murdered in ‘brutal attack’ after taking passengers to wrong location
The passengers launched their attack after been driven to the wrong address
An Uber driver was murdered in a ‘brutal and totally unforgiving attack’ after taking two passengers to the wrong location, a murder trial has heard this week.
Connor McPartland, twenty, and, Martin Treacy, eighteen, both from Oldham, were ‘extremely drunk’ when they requested an Uber to the Ko-Ko Lounge nightclub in Rochdale in October last year.
Uber driver Ali Asghar picked the men up but instead drove them to Coco’s Grillhouse and Desserts, which had been accidentally submitted into the app by McPartland and Treacy.
Manchester Crown court heard how the men became ‘angry’ at Asghar following the mix up, with a ‘ferocious argument’ breaking out at a nearby Shell petrol station.
Ko-Ko Lounge Rochdale / Facebook
Prosecutors allege the pair then unleashed a ‘ferocious, brutal and totally unforgiving attack’ on Asghar, which resulted in the thirty-eight-year-old suffering fractured cheekbones, a fractured skull.
CCTV showed Asghar attempting to run away before stumbling and falling, prompting the two defendants to resume their attack ‘kicking him in the head and the face’, the prosecution told the jury.
Another taxi driver, Mohammad Khalid, saw the victim being attacked and attempted to reason with the two men, but was forced to retreat to his car amid fears of being attacked too.
When police arrested Treacy, he was said to have told the officer: “Mate you can check the cameras he hit me first, I don’t give a f**k.
Stephen Richards / Geograph
“He hit me first, you can check the cameras, he will have cameras in his car, check that, he hit me first, I don’t give a f**k.’
Asghar was rushed to Salford Royal Hospital’s intensive care unit, but sadly died from his injuries two weeks later.
Now on trial, McPartland and Treacy both deny Asghar’s murder, with jurors being told that Treacy admits to manslaughter but denies he intended to cause the taxi driver serious harm.
McPartland, on the other hand, continues to deny manslaughter and two counts of making threats with an offensive weapon.
The trial continues.