Murder jury hears witness’s recording of thumping noise

A woman last week told a murder trial she was wakened at 3am by sounds of thumping coming from the flat above.

Shannara Fraser, 30, was giving evidence at the trial of Muhammed Rauf, 42, Shahida Abid, 33, and Saima Hayat, 33, who deny murdering 49-year-old Haider Hayat by striking him on the head and body with a hammer and a knife last April, at a flat in Raithburn Road, Castlemilk.

They also deny attempting to defeat the ends of justice by washing bloodstained clothing and concocting a false story.

In evidence, Ms Fraser told prosecutor Richard Goddard QC: “There was like thumping noises and other noises. I heard a man saying something like El Paulo or El Pablo.

“It sounded as if someone pressed down on him, and he tried to kind of shout it out. It sounded like air was being forced out of his lungs.”

Ms Fraser told the High Court in Glasgow that she recorded the sounds because she had complained previously about noise coming from the flat occupied by Hayat and her five children.

She said: “I was told to record any noise, so I did.”

The jury was played two short recordings from her phone. In the first a man can be heard saying something and in the second tape there is continuous thumping.

Mr Goddard asked Ms Fraser: “What could you hear in the second recording”, and she replied, “just continuous thumping. It’s horrible sounding.”

The prosecutor then said: “Did you hear any females protesting or screaming in the recordings,” and the witness replied,“no”.

Ms Fraser told the court she was woken at 8.15am by a phone call from a neighbour and added: “I looked out the window and I saw lots of policemen and the street was taped off.”

The witness said that she later learned that Mr Hayat had died.

Earlier, Mohammed Asif, 59, who is Mr Hayat’s brother, claimed that his brother was “terrified” of his wife Saima Hayat.

He told the jury: ‘She planned to do him in. He was scared of this woman.”

Mr Asif claimed that his brother had been assaulted by his wife in 2013 and in 2018.

He said the couple, who married in 2004, had lived in Warrington for a number of years, but in 2018 Saima Hayat moved to Glasgow with the children.

Mr Asif was asked by QC Brian McConnachie, representing Hayat, said: “Did your brother ever go to the police?”

He replied: “He was frightened of his wife.”

Mr McConnachie then asked: “It was his wife who was the victim of domestic abuse wasn’t it,” and Mr Asif said: “No, I don’t think so.”

The QC said: “That’s why she took herself and the children to Glasgow, that’s the truth,” and Mr Asif replied: “It’s not the truth.”

The trial before judge Lady Rae continues.

Itsoundedas if someone pressed down on him... it sounded like air was being forced out of his lungs