Kian Tordoff murder trial mystery at where machetes went

Sheryar Khan, 17, of Yew Tree Avenue, was found guilty of murdering the 19-year-old on John Street on October 10 last year, at Bradford Crown Court (BCC) yesterday.

He was also found guilty of the wounding with intent of Matthew Page, known as Matthew Lowther, who suffered a life-threatening stab wound to his right-upper chest and a superficial slash wound to the stomach.

Both were unanimous decisions.

Arbaz Khan, 22, of Yew Tree Avenue, Sheryar’s older brother, and Mohammed Adil Hussain, 18, of Kite Mews in the Lower Grange area, Arbaz's friend, were both found guilty of the manslaughter of Kian Tordoff and guilty of the unlawful wounding of Matthew Lowther.

Aizaz Khan, 27, of Yew Tree Avenue, Sheryar and Arbaz’s older brother, Amaad Shakiel, 20, of Leaventhorpe Lane and Adam Qayum, 23, of Avenel Road, Allerton were acquitted of murder and attempted murder.

Sheryar Khan – who the Telegraph & Argus can now identify after it successfully applied for a Section 45 reporting restriction to be removed - admitted to stabbing Mr Tordoff six times on John Street on October 10 last year and was wielding a machete and knife.

He also admitted to inflicting the life-threatening injury on Mr Lowther.

But despite the trial coming to a conclusion, it remains unclear what exactly was used to kill Mr Tordoff, with two machetes going missing too.

Mr Mark McKone QC, for the prosecution, said during the trial: “Other knives were recovered, I pause there just to remind you that the pathologist cannot say which knife or knives caused any of these injuries.”

Sheryar Khan admitted he took two weapons to scene.

Throughout the trial, his case was that he had been hearing a voice – that of a Cockney man which would be both comforting and cause him to act negatively to placate it – and both the prosecution and defence’s psychiatrists diagnosed him as psychotic.

It is this voice that Sheryar Khan said told him to grab a knife at his home to protect himself on a journey back to Bradford city centre to pick up a phone which had been dropped by Arbaz Khan during a fight in Westgate at around 5.15am.

Dr Michael Crawford – the prosecution’s psychiatrist who interviewed the teenager once - said the 17-year-old told him he got a kitchen knife as “the voice was telling me to take a knife, someone is going to stab you."

The jury has rejected the idea that Sheryar Khan’s condition was a substantial factor in the killing and His Honour Judge Richard Mansell QC even said yesterday the teenager “sought to hide behind his mental disorder in this trial.”

The judge added that his view was Sheryar Khan was not telling the truth about the voices commanding him to take up a knife and then stab Mr Tordoff.

But the conversation Sheryar Khan had with Dr Crawford gives an insight into where one of the many knives mentioned in this trial came from.

Arbaz Khan admitted to taking a machete to John Street but claimed he initially armed himself at his home because threats had been made by a man named Abdullah – known as “Chaser” – to burn it down with his wife and children inside.

This was during a fight between the two that turned into a large-scale street brawl on Westgate and was the starting point of the night’s tragic events.

Khan said “at the time I was panicking and scared” and his plan was to sit outside his house with it.

The machete came from a cupboard under the stairs at his wife’s house and belonged to her ex-partner but Khan never thought to get rid of it as it was just there in storage.

He said the blade was not very sharp and did not “wait until the enemy arrived” to put it in his hand because he “wasn’t thinking straight”.

This was also his reason for not considering the fact he was breaking the law by taking it out but claimed he was only planning to use it to scare people and would not use it even to protect his family.

Khan took the machete with him in the white BMW X5 his elder brother, Aizaz Khan, turned up in and said he placed it in the rear-left passenger footwell where he was sat but told nobody about it.

Shakiel, who was sat the furthest away from Khan with Qayum and then Hussain between him, said he looked to his left as they got near Bradford city centre to pick up Khan’s phone and saw two blades in the footwell.

The 20-year-old, who was heavily intoxicated having drank, smoked a few drags of cannabis and doing around a dozen balloons containing “laughing gas”, said he “didn’t speak”.

He added: “I didn't speak, I didn't ask, I was just scared, at the same time my head was all over, I was just frightened, I didn't speak.”

Shakiel claims he did not see anyone pass a knife from the back to Sheryar Khan in the front passenger seat but when he looked to his left again, both knives had gone from the footwell.

This was when Sheryar Khan, wielding a machete and knife, and Arbaz Khan – armed with his machete – got out of the BMW as it was moving, followed by Hussain and Qayum.

Eyewitnesses claim they saw three men running around with blades and the prosecution put it that Hussain was carrying a weapon – highlighting a reflective item in his hand on CCTV.

But he claims it was a mobile phone.

Khan said he waved the machete around as he got out the vehicle and approached a man near the car who he thought had made the new threats.

He claimed his intention was to simply scare him and said “what did you say, are you going to come to my house?”

Khan said the man “kinda froze in one spot” and replied “no, I didn’t say nothing, it wasn’t me”, at which point the machete-wielding 22-year-old went past him.

He then chased Cameron Wright – a girl described by her friends as looking like a boy – with the weapon and CCTV shows at one point that his right arm is raised as she falls to the ground.

But Khan said he was not taking a swipe and that he was using a lamppost to swing round with his left arm and moved on from Ms Wright.

Several female witnesses said they shouted at Khan to indicate Ms Wright was a girl and the prosecution claim this is the only reason he did not attack.

But Khan said he did not know she was female until the trial.

Khan said he had the chance to stab and injure someone with the machete but did not because he “had no intention of harming anyone at all, all my intention was just to scare them as I got out the car.”

He added: “You can see there's a male in front of me, if I wanted to stab him, I could've, if I wanted to stab Cameron, I could've, if I wanted to stab three people sat on a bench, I could've.”

Mr Tordoff suffered six major stab wounds at the hands of Sheryar Khan, including a 11cm deep wound in the upper-left back (the cause of death), which penetrated the lower part of his lung and the aorta – the main blood vessel in the body.

The teenager also inflicted a 4.5cm deep wound to the neck, a 4.5cm deep wound to the front of the torso which entered the chest cavity and a wound to the left hip which entered the abdominal cavity and caused perforations to the large intestine and small intestine.

Mr Tordoff also suffered a zig-zag stab wound to his right hand, where a knife went right through, which was indicative of him protecting himself.

But what weapons were seized by police?

No machete was ever recovered and this in part might have been down to Arbaz Khan throwing his weapon out the BMW’s window as they fled from the scene.

Sheryar Khan told his defence psychiatrist, Dr Seena Fazel, that he buried a knife in a local park and was paranoid about his surroundings.

Dr Fazel said: “He said he went to bury the knife in a local park and he put his hands in the mud and pushed the knife in, he said while he was doing this, he was looking for microphones in the leaves and the bench.”

The BMW was abandoned on Waterlily Road, but at one point was seen on CCTV going towards Lister Park and then picked up again nine minutes later going in the opposite direction.

But the driver of the BMW, Aizaz Khan, and other defendants denied making any stops or disposing of weapons in the park and Khan said he went that way to Waterlily Road but cannot remember why.

A machete sheath was recovered from John Street by police after officers secured the scene.

This measured 40.5cm in length – or 16 inches long - and was forensically examined.

A single blood stain was found on the outside and a DNA test matched it to Sheryar Khan.

Three knives were recovered by police but pathologist, Dr Kirsten Hope, she could not conclusively ascertain from photos of them whether they had caused all or any of the injuries inflicted on Mr Tordoff.

She could not exclude the possibility of more than one knife being used and said they all had the same appearance.

The first two knives were discovered at Yew Tree Avenue – the home of Sheryar, Arbaz and Aizaz Khan – after the premises were secured on October 10 for two days.

A hunting/boning style knife with a wooden handle and a 29cm long (almost 1ft) and 4.7cm wide at its widest blade was found in a sheath under the floor in a bathroom airing cupboard.

A white-handled kitchen knife was also found in the garage there.

The first knife and its sheath were examined.

Nothing was found on, or in, the sheath and also on the tip and body of the blade.

But in the opinion of a forensic scientist the handle provided a DNA match for Sheryar Khan, Arbaz and Aizaz Khan.

The Khan brother’s mother said when giving evidence in court that she had “too much kitchen stuff” to notice a knife had gone missing and still has not checked.

On November 24, police searched the home address of Qayum – on Avenel Road, Allerton.

Officers found a yellow metal dagger with a bent blade in cupboard crawl space in the loft.

Sheryar Khan, Arbaz Khan and Hussain will be sentenced this morning.

Aizaz Khan and Qayum have been released, while Shakiel has been remanded on unconditional bail for other matters.