‘Entitled’ thugs who killed taxi driver after food row jailed
THE brother of an Uber driver savagely murdered after challenging a drunken lout about eating fast food in his car said he couldn’t recognise his sibling after the attack.
Connor McPartland, 20, and Martin Treacy, 18, have been jailed for life after killing ‘dearly loved’ taxi driver Ali Asghar in the street.
Mr Asghar, described as a ‘true gentleman,’ had picked up the pair in Oldham town centre before taking them to Rochdale.
Treacy started eating a chicken burger and chips in Mr Asghar’s new Mercedes.
Mr Asghar pulled over on Queensway after Treacy refused to stop eating, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Then Mr Asghar was brutally attacked by the pair, being punched and kicked to the head.
He was pushed over, hitting his head on the wheel of his car, and died two weeks later. A judge said Mr Asghar was ‘in no way to blame.’
Earlier in the journey, in the early hours of October 30 last year, there had been a mix-up about where the pair wanted to be taken after McPartland made a spelling error on the Uber app.
“Ali Asghar was 39 years old when he had the misfortune to meet you two, a pair of drunken and entitled louts,” Judge Alan Conrad QC told the killers.
“He was a hardworking and decent man, carrying out a valuable public service to provide for his family. By your drunken violence over the period of a few minutes you have ruined your lives, but that is as nothing in comparison with the damage you have done to others by your savage and brutal behaviour.”
Mr Asghar’s brother Azhar Ali said his sibling’s face was ‘unrecognisable’ when he went to visit him in hospital.
He told of the devastation that his brother’s death has caused to their family in the UK and in their native Pakistan. He revealed he couldn’t bear to tell their mother in Pakistan of her son’s death.
He waited until weeks later to reveal the news, when his body was flown to Pakistan. A ‘huge part’ of their mother died with her son, he said.
Addressing his brother’s killers, Azhar Ali said: “How could anybody do this to an innocent person for something that was a mistake made by the attackers themselves?
“He sustained so many injuries as a result of the attack and then they left him there to die like his life had no meaning at all.
“I am totally broken and will never be able to get those images and thoughts out of my head.” McPartland and Treacy, who both had no previous convictions, will be in their 30s when they are considered for release. McPartland will serve a minimum of 14-and-ahalf years, and Treacy a minimum of 13-and-a-half years. McPartland, of Hollins Road, Oldham, and Treacy, of Gawsworth Close, Oldham, were both found guilty of murder after a trial. Treacy admitted manslaughter. The judge said he accepted that they had not intended to kill Mr Asghar, and that the attack was not premeditated. He also took their age into account when passing sentence.
I am totally broken and will never be able to get those images and thoughts out of my head Azhar Ali, brother of the victim