Murder accused was 'happy to have killed' after knifing housemate, court told

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Peter Reimann

Police on Carlow Street in Gresham

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A paranoid knifeman stabbed his housemate to death then told police “I’m happy to have killed him”, a jury heard today.

Abdourhamane Barry fatally knifed Hamed Vaziri to the neck and chest in the home they shared with three other asylum seekers and refugees, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley QC said: “The stab to the neck damaged the carotid artery, a main artery in the body.

“Death swiftly followed. There was huge blood loss,” he said, opening the case at Teesside Crown Court today.

“The prosecution say this was completely unprovoked, completely out of the blue and entirely due to Mr Barry deciding there and then to take a knife to Mr Vaziri.”

Barry, 26, called 999 and told police at the home: “I’ve stabbed him. He was being racist.”

He admitted responsibility for the killing, said 26-year-old Mr Vaziri was “getting on my nerves” and claimed he acted in self defence.

He launched the attack in his and Mr Vaziri’s home on Carlow Street, Gresham, Middlesbrough, in the early hours of the morning, the court heard.

One or two days earlier, he was told his fellow housemates had made complaints about him.

Mr Lumley said Barry came home at about 3am on January 25 and asked Mr Vaziri in the living room: “Do you have a problem with me?”

On getting no reply, Barry went into the kitchen, came back and stabbed Mr Vaziri in front of their housemates, the jury heard.

“He lifted a knife above his head and struck it into Mr Vaziri’s neck, the area around his shoulder, in an angry manner,” added Mr Lumley.

“He struck him quickly twice, maybe three times.

“The victim collapsed on the floor in the sitting room. He tried to crawl upstairs but he collapsed at the top of the stairs.”

He said Barry also fought with two other men in the living room until he was disarmed.

Barry called 999 and told the operator: “I’ve killed someone. I stabbed him. He tried to stab me. I take the knife back.”

Iranian refugee Mr Vaziri was already dead at the scene when paramedics arrived.

Police found Barry calm, cooperative and coherent, though he said he suffered depression, back pain and bouts of dizziness.

He told his estranged wife on the phone: “I’ve killed someone. Self defence.

“It was either me or him. Somebody was going to die. He was getting on my nerves.”

In police interviews, Barry admitted stabbing Mr Vaziri “because he was being racist”.

He said he was “having a headache” as he took the knife from the kitchen after Mr Vaziri shouted and elbowed him as he passed.

He told officers: “I tried to stab him in the neck.

“He punched me in my stomach and chest. I was very angry. I knew they were talking about me.”

He said he passed Mr Vaziri slumped on the landing, adding: “I went to give him a kick.

“I’m happy to have killed him,” he said at the end of the interview.

Mr Lumley said Barry suffered no injuries and nobody saw violence from Mr Vaziri, described by his brother as a quiet and kind man who didn’t drink, smoke, cause trouble or have enemies.

He told how the behaviour of Guinea-born Barry, who came to the UK in 2003 when he was 15, worsened in the days leading up the killing.

His estranged wife said he believed people were being racist, he became paranoid about people following him and talking about him, and he was abusive and offensive to her.

He told her he was worried about being deported and “someone was going to kill him so he might as well kill himself”.

Barry’s mental health worsened after the incident, said Mr Lumley.

He told the jury: “It’s not a normal murder trial.

“He can’t take any meaningful part in this hearing, so you must resolve what he did that night.

“The prosecution say there is clear evidence that he killed Mr Vaziri. He used a knife to do it.”

Barry has been found unfit to plead due to a mental disability.

The jury of seven women and five men was told the trial would be unusual and they would not be asked to decide whether Barry was guilty or not guilty.

Mr Justice Green told them: “You’re going to be asked whether he did the acts which are alleged to have constituted the murder.

“In other words, did he kill the deceased?”

Proceeding