TikTok murder trial halted until Tuesday
THE trial of TikTok influencer Mahek Bukhari and seven others has now been adjourned until next week following a day when there was no evidence due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
The jury at Leicester Crown Court was not told why they were unable to hear more from the 24-year-old defendant when they were sent home at 2pm on Tuesday.
And due to the coming bank holiday Monday, the jury will not be back now until Tuesday.
Mahek Bukhari had been in the witness stand for two-and-a-half days already, giving evidence and answering questions from the prosecution.
Her evidence is not yet complete she was still being cross examined by prosecutor Collingwood Thompson KC on Monday afternoon when the hearing ended for the day.
On Tuesday there was no evidence in front of the jury at all.
After a morning spent in their waiting room, the jury entered court for the first time at 2pm when Judge Timothy Spencer KC told them: “We’ve been overtaken by unforeseen circumstances. We couldn’t sit this morning and I’m afraid to say we can’t sit this afternoon either, so this is now a lost day - I’m sorry about that. I’m not going to go into any more detail, don’t speculate about it.
“There’s no reason to think this is going to be repeated from now on. Because Mahek Bukhari is in the witness box and is the focus of our attention I want to make it absolutely plain these unforeseen circumstances are nothing to do with her, they’re absolutely nothing to do with any other defendant and they’re absolutely nothing to do with the prosecution.”
The eight defendants all deny murder in the case where two men were allegedly run off the road in a high-speed chase, with their car hitting a tree and bursting into flames on the A46 near Six Hills.
The jury had been warned previously that the court would not be sitting on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week due to other court commitments.