A 21 year old man from Sheldon, Birmingham has been acquitted of murder following a trial at Leicester Crown Court, following a 5 week trial. 

The defendant was represented by Gurdeep Garcha K.C. leading Kevin Metzger (Great James Street Chambers, London) – instructed by Masawar Iqbal of IB Legal.

The defendant, who was a serving prisoner at the recently opened HMP Fosse Way, Leicester, was jointly charged alongside two other serving prisoners; with the murder of a fellow inmate in August 2024.

The prosecution said that the victim had been bullied and harassed in the weeks leading up to his death, because of his recent conviction for a child sexual offence. That campaign of abuse culminated in a violent assault inside his cell. He died from a head injury in the form of a subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by blunt force trauma. 

The case was based primarily on extensive CCTV footage, which was painstakingly analysed during the 4-week trial, and involved ‘cut-throat’ defences being run by each defendant. 

Mr Garcha KC’s client was one of the two men who had entered the victim’s cell and who engaged in violence. However, Mr Garcha KC was able to successfully demonstrate to the jury that although his client and the first defendant had entered the victim’s cell together and then left together after the violence, they did not share a common intention and were not party to a joint enterprise. The evidence demonstrated that the first defendant had resorted to a level of violence which was wholly beyond the contemplation of his fellow inmate. 

The first defendant was convicted of murder by the jury. Mr Garcha KC’s client was acquitted of murder and convicted of manslaughter, an offence he had acknowledged he was guilty of throughout the trial.