Drug addict killed dealer then dumped body in lane
AMURDERER said he was ‘planning the party of a lifetime’ hours after killing a young man in a deadly frenzied hammer and knife attack, a court heard.
Drug addict Jason Byrnes killed 21-year-old Mohammed Aftab, Manchester Crown Court was told on Monday, after they had agreed to meet on Christmas Eve in Rochdale.
The motive for the brutal killing is not known but the hearing was told Mr Aftab led a secret life as a dealer and that it’s understood Byrnes, who had £3,000 in drugs debts, killed him for his own gain.
Byrnes, 26, who admitted murder, killed Mr Aftab as they both sat in Byrnes’s van parked in the car park of the Bulls Head pub in Halifax Road.
Byrnes then dumped his victim’s body on the side of a track of a remote country lane, Dyehouse Lane in Smallbridge, nearly 200 yards away, after using a ‘large number of blows’ to kill him.
Mr Aftab was discovered by members of the public on Christmas morning, prosecutor Timothy Storrie said.
After killing Mr Aftab, Byrnes fled to Preston and was overheard by a taxi driver saying he was ‘planning the party of a lifetime,’ after purchasing drugs.
The court heard how Mr Aftab, who lived in Wardle, unknown to his family had started dealing drugs.
As far as they knew, he relied on them for money, but police recovered a phone he used and identified a Ford Focus he had been given.
Phone records showed Byrnes and Mr Aftab had been in contact before on numerous occasions.
Byrnes, who lived in the white van where he was later to murder Mr Aftab after being thrown out of his home because of his drug addiction, met his eventual victim on Christmas Eve.
Mr Aftab died at about 10.40pm.
The shocking incident, which Byrnes’ barrister David Bruce described as a ‘dreadful act of violence’ and a ‘very frenzied attack,’ was captured on the pub’s CCTV cameras.
Mr Aftab’s parents were concerned about his absence and called the police to report him missing. Their worst fears were realised the following morning when police cordoned off the scene and identified the victim as Mr Aftab. The court heard the family have since set up a charity to provide clean drinking water for the poor around the world in Mr Aftab’s memory.
Byrnes walked around in blooded clothes for days and was arrested on December 28.
Prosecutors say the killing was a premeditated act but, defending, Mr Bruce claimed it was committed in a moment of anger and loss of control.
He said Byrnes had spent time in hospital suffering from mental health issues, although no formal diagnosis had been made by doctors.
The judge, David Stockdale QC, adjourned proceedings and was due to sentence on Tuesday morning.
Byrnes, of Waithlands Road, Rochdale, will receive a mandatory life sentence, but the judge will set out the number of years which will form the determinate sentence.