Sabawon Kharotai is accused of knifing Homed Heydari when fighting in Wavertree Botanic Gardens spilled out onto Edge Lane
A police cordon at the scene on Edge Lane
A teenager stabbed a man during a “scrap over a girl” which was prearranged via Snapchat, a court has heard. Sabawon Kharotai is alleged to have knifed Homed Heydari when fighting in Wavertree Botanic Gardens spilled out onto Edge Lane, leading to “despicable acts of violence” near to the major road’s junction with Holt Road in Kensington.
The 18-year-old, of Grove Road in Fairfield, however, denies having stabbed his supposed victim in the thigh, claiming that the injured man had attacked him while armed with the weapon. He went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court today, Tuesday, accused of a string of violent offences.
Matthew Conway told a jury of five men and seven women during the prosecution’s opening this afternoon: “The case you are about to hear, in a sentence, is about a fight on Edge Lane on the 27th of February this year, when, the prosecution say, this man brought a knife to the scene and stabbed somebody in the thigh. That is the case in a nutshell.
“What you will see in the evidence is that this fight on that main arterial road in and out of Liverpool, which took place just outside of the Botanic Gardens, had been prearranged. The police managed to discover, from one of the phones of another person who turned up, that it had been planned on Snapchat.
“What is clear from the messages is that these two individuals, not including this defendant, organised a fight in the Botanic Gardens for 9 o’clock. The fight was over a girl. Neither of those two individuals came alone. One of them, Ghalib Habibi, brought along this man. The other, Fahad Al-Thafiri, brought along six others.
“We do not have any CCTV footage or eyewitnesses from inside the Botanic Gardens. The evidence in this case really is the moments after, because the CCTV captures people running down Edge Lane. The prosecution say that this is a continuation, overflow or overspill of what must have happened inside the Botanic Gardens.
“Essentially, what you have are two groups that came together on a cold February evening to have a fight, to have a scrap. On Edge Lane, the prosecution say, this man had a blade in his hand and put it into the thigh of somebody else.”
Jurors were shown pictures of the stab wound sustained by 31-year-old Heydari, a bloodstained knife which was recovered from the scene by police, later found to contain the injured man’s DNA, and images of Kharotai’s bloodied and swollen face in the aftermath of the incident. CCTV obtained from terraced houses on Edge Lane meanwhile showed Al-Thafiri running across the dual carriageway from the direction of Wavertree Botanic gardens and “stumbling” in front of a moving car, “almost getting run over” before trying the handle of another passing vehicle which then drove away.
Habibi, 19, was then seen following the 20-year-old across the road in order to “confront” him. Kharotai was thereafter seen handing a crutch to “his mate” before the two teenagers began walking away along Edge Lane, pursued by several other men.
The defendant was seen with “his left arm held out towards the men behind him” before he was tackled to the ground by Heydari. Mr Conway added: “In that clip, the prosecution say, there is an item in the hand of this defendant, consistent with him holding, in his fist, a bladed article.
“What you will see in the footage is, Homed Heydari tackled the defendant. There is then some tussling and some scrap on the ground. Ultimately, Mr Heydari ends up on top of this defendant, straddling him, and held him down until the police arrived.
“During the time that this defendant was being held to the ground, the prosecution say, subdued, restrained, other members of that group inflicted injury on the defendant. They kicked him in the head quite a bit. He suffered some injury because of that.
“It was the other group who called the police and restrained this man until they arrived. When they arrived, Fawad Habib handed to the police the bladed article that I have already shown you.
“Homed Heydari then realised that he had a 5cm puncture wound in his right thigh. There is nobody else who comes into contact with Homed Heydari and, save from the kicks that this man got to his head, he was only ever in contact with Homed Heydari, and Homed Heydari is the only one that ended up with that 5cm puncture wound to his upper thigh.”
When interviewed following his arrest, Kharotai stated in a prepared interview that he “had no knowledge that there would be a fight” prior to his attendance at the scene and denied being in possession of any weapon. He added that he had “attempted to disarm” the other man of a knife and was “repeatedly assaulted”, further denying that he had stabbed Heydari.
But Mr Conway, who described the scenes as “despicable acts of violence on Edge Lane that evening”, told the court: “We understand the issues to be that he did not possess the knife and did not stab Mr Heydari. He says that he was attacked, and it was his attacker who had a bladed article.
“Fundamentally, this case is about that clip. This case is about the conclusions that you can draw from watching what this defendant did on that footage and what Mr Heydari did on that footage. The prosecution say that, once you have seen the footage, you will be sure that wound to his upper thigh was caused because this man stabbed him, and there is no other reasonable explanation for that 5cm wound to him.”
Kharotai, who is represented by Eve Salter, denies wounding with intent, unlawful wounding, possession of a bladed article in a public place and affray. The trial, before Judge Denis Watson KC, continues.