Michael Fields was said to have left his victim with a punctured lung following another ‘incident some days earlier’
Michael Fields is accused of the murder of Paul Foster
A murder suspect previously left a man with a punctured lung after stabbing him in the chest in a pub toilet, a court has heard. Paul Foster died aged 47 after suffering a single stab wound to the back during a “taxing” at a flat on Muirhead Avenue in West Derby.
His assailants were said to have been “tooled up” with a knife and an imitation firearm at the time of the robbery, stealing drugs and a quantity of cash from the address before fleeing. Four men and a woman: Elsadig Abrahim, Zayd Alasaly, Dylan Blundell, Michael Fields and Sarah Kasseum are currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of Mr Foster’s murder.
Prosecution junior Henry Riding told jurors of three of the defendants’ previous convictions on Thursday. This included Fields having admitted an offence of wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm in March 2008, relating to an incident in November the previous year.
Mr Riding said of this: “Following an incident that passed between the defendant and the victim in a public house in London some days earlier, on the 23rd of November 2007, the defendant followed his victim into the toilets of the same public house and stabbed him once to left hand side of the chest with a knife, puncturing the victim’s lung.”
However, Mr Riding added that the man’s injuries were “not life threatening”. The court also heard that Alasaly pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article in a public place in March 2019, having “passed it to a co-accused, who used it to wound a victim in the course of a fight in college” on September 21 2017.
In September 2022, he then admitted robbery and possession of a bladed article in a public place. This came after he “produced a large kitchen knife from his waistband and said words to the effect of ‘pass it over'” as he stole an electric scooter from a woman on July 15 the same year.
Blundell was said to have pleaded guilty to matters of robbery and attempted robbery in July 2016, both committed on January 7 that year. Mr Riding described how the defendant and his unnamed co-accused entered a newsagents on Broad Green Road at around 3.15pm, with the latter having paid for three bottles of Lucozade as the former stood by the entrance and “appeared to gesture to someone outside to wait”.
A woman was then shown on CCTV leaving the shop, being followed by Blundell and his accomplice. Only 50 seconds later, a third male was said to have entered the store from the same direction in which the others had left and threatened the shop assistant with a knife while saying: “Give us your f***ing money.”
However, the robber ultimately left empty handed after the employee “resisted”. Then, shortly before 6.30pm, the same three males attended Subway on Smithdown Road with their “faces concealed by hooded clothing”.
They then “vaulted or climbed over the counter and approached two members of staff working behind the counter”. One of the attackers went on to arm himself with two knives from a food preparation area and demanded that the till and safe by opened, allowing the robbers to steal £300 in cash.
Blundell’s prior convictions also include an assault from November 2016, assaulting an emergency worker in September 2020 and assault, battery and assaulting an emergency worker in January 2024. He then pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in July 2025, relating to an incident on May 28 the same year.
The murder trial
The jury of six men and six women previously heard during the prosecution’s opening last week that Paul Foster dealt drugs from the home of a now deceased woman named Lyndzi McCowan on Muirhead Avenue. Fields is said to have driven his four co-defendants to this house in his black Kia Ceed car shortly after 1.30am on October 15 2024. David McLachlan KC, appearing for the crown, said: “They were not going to Muirhead Avenue for a little drive on a Tuesday morning in the early hours.
“The prosecution say that they were in the car for a purpose, and it was not a good purpose. The purpose was to rob Paul Foster of his money and his drugs in what is known commonly as taxing, and they went tooled up. By that, we mean that they were armed with a knife and an imitation firearm.”
Upon their arrival, Kasseum was said to have been “deployed to gain entry” to the address using the intercom, having apparently been “in the know” and “close enough to Paul Foster to know where he was and close enough to know what he did”.
Mr McLachlan told the court: “Lyndzi McCowan buzzed her in. It did not work and, in fact, nobody arrived at the flat, so Lyndzi McCowan walked down to speak to the girl, Sarah Kasseum, who had been buzzed in.
“As she made her way downstairs, she was confronted by three males running at her. They were dressed in black. She did not see the girl that she had seen from the window. Lyndzi McCowan ran back into the flat, no doubt as fast as she could, and tried to shut the door against the males that were trying to barge in. She was screaming. She realised that the males were there to rob Paul Foster.”
These men were heard to say “where is he?”, “where’s the bits?” and “where’s the money?” and were said to be armed with “what appeared to be a gun”. Mr McLachlan added: “During that confrontation, Paul Foster was fatally stabbed in the back.
They legged it
“What did they do? Well, they legged it. They fled the scene. They took cash, stolen from the flat. They were described as wearing all black clothing and balaclavas. A bloodstained piece of black metal, which was the plastic slide component of an air pistol, was recovered from inside 40A Muirhead Avenue. The knife was never recovered.
“It is the prosecution case that Paul Foster’s death was a direct consequence of a drug taxing where he was living and dealing drugs. It is the prosecution case that Michael Fields drove the offenders to the scene, that Sarah Kasseum was present at the scene and acted as a decoy by posing as someone who intended to purchase drugs from Paul Foster.
“But she was there for an entirely different purpose, that being to facilitate access to the flat for the purpose of the taxing that was to take place. Thereafter, the males went in, Michael Fields, Elsadig Abrahim, Zayd Alasaly and Dylan Blundell. They went in to do their business armed with weapons, a knife and an imitation firearm.
“The prosecution case is that all five defendants went to 40A Muirhead Avenue to rob Paul Foster of his drugs and money. They went mob handed. They were armed with a knife and an imitation firearm. The prosecution case is that they shared a common purpose, and that common purpose was, without a doubt, to rob Paul Foster and, if it came to it, and, sadly, it did, to commit murder.
“Was the stabbing of Paul Foster within the scope of a joint enterprise if the need arose? That will be a question that you will grapple with. The prosecution case is that it obviously was, and it will be necessary for you to consider, individually, what the intentions of each of the defendants was in this case.
“The prosecution case is that, whilst the defendants went to rob Paul Foster, they did so in the knowledge that, if it got on top, they could resort to using the weapons that they had, that were in their joint possession, to wound or to inflict grievous bodily harm with intent. The knife was not a toy, members of the jury.”
Abrahim, aged 61 and of Croxteth Road in Toxteth, 23-year-old Alasaly, of Corinto Street in Toxteth, 26-year-old Blundell, of Corsewall Street in Wavertree, 41-year-old Kasseum, of Lower Breck Road in Anfield, and 50-year-old Fields, of no fixed address, all deny murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place. Abrahim, Alasaly and Kasseum have also pleaded not guilty to robbery and carrying an imitation firearm with intent to commit an offence.
Blundell and Fields, however, admit these two counts, with the latter having similarly pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The trial, before Judge Simon Medland KC, continues.