Grandfather killed yards from home

AGRANDFATHER-OFFOUR was stabbed to death in a quiet London suburb after visiting his local pub for a pint on Saturday evening.

Keen jazz musician Allan Isichei, 69, the director of a building company, was attacked after leaving the Plough Inn pub in Southall, west London, where he regularly performs music.

Mr Isichei, who has three children with his wife Sandra, was walking to his home in St Mary’s Avenue South, just a few hundred yards away, when he was knifed twice.

He stumbled to a neighbour’s front door at about 6.39pm and asked them to call an ambulance, but died just over an hour later despite treatment from paramedics.

Detectives have arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of murder and he was held in hospital overnight with minor injuries, Scotland Yard said.

Neighbour Raj Grover, 41, said his son Kevneet, 15, answered the door after Mr Isichei knocked

and begged for an ambulance while calling out for his wife.

“I realised it was somebody who had been injured,” said Kevneet, whose 11-year-old sister also saw the injuries.

“He straight away started saying, ‘Call an ambulance’. I said, ‘OK, what’s happened?’ because I didn’t recognise him, I got scared.

“He said, ‘Call an ambulance’ and then he collapsed. I called my dad.

“The ambulance let us down. When we called, they started asking so many questions. So many people were calling the ambulance, the police.

“The ambulance were asking so many questions, they took quite a few minutes, but then his face started to go white and his lips as well.”

Mr Grover said after they arrived the paramedics also asked Mr Isichei to stand up and get on to a stretcher despite his wounds.

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said paramedics arrived within six minutes.

She added that asking a conscious patient to try to stand is “usual and accepted practice” as a way to assess mobility, and “often the quickest and safest” method.

It is understood the attack was not linked to anything that occurred inside the pub and Mr Isichei had left “peacefully”.

A friend said: “He just walked home as normal and something happened before he got home.

“He would come in about once a week, he played in the band and used to pop in for a chat, he never had more than one pint. He was a lovely fellow, really mild-mannered, a lovely man.”

Mr Isichei was the managing director of Broadway Construction, a family business he set up in 1974, according to his Linkedin profile.

He had been married for more than 40 years and had also worked as a part-time coach for Wasps Rugby Club, in Coventry, it said.