A man accused of conspiring to murder a security guard was later seen suffering facial burns in line with having torched a car, a jury heard.
Mohammed Rafiq sought hospital treatment hours after Qadir Ahmed's car was rammed off a Keighley road and he was chased and killed by a masked gang, Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday.
The prosecution said a Rover 820 car allegedly used during the attack last February was discovered burned out the following day.
Richard Mansell, prosecuting, said Rafiq, 21, turned up at a Burnley hospital early the next day.
John Pilkington, an accident and emergency department security guard, said: "He was clutching his face and saying: 'Quick, get me seen to - I have been burned'."
Mr Pilkington said Rafiq told him he had been burnt by chip fat. But in a statement read to Leeds Crown Court, the hospital receptionist said Rafiq claimed his injuries were due to a 'flashover' while he was burning rubbish with petrol. And the court heard how he gave the same explanation to a doctor after being transferred to a specialist burns unit in Preston where his wounds were assessed as superficial.
Reading from the statement of Yorkshire-based burns expert Dr John Settle, Mr Mansell said Rafiq's burns were not consistent with being inflicted from the "rising flames" of an open fire but from the 'flashover' of an enclosed blaze. More specifically, they were in line with him being close to a car being burned with petrol with a door open.
Earlier, the court heard from senior forensic scientist Valerie Whitford whose studies suggested there had been "forcible contact" between Mr Ahmed's Rover 25 and a Volvo 740 which was found abandoned in Marlborough Street.
Previously the jury had heard how Mr Ahmed, 24, of Gordon Street, Keighley, was rammed off the road after playing football with friends.
He was chased on to the roundabout by a masked gang where he was attacked with at least three weapons including a knife and axe.
Rafiq, of Chatsworth Street, Keigh-ley; Zulfiqar Asif, 23, of Bradford Road, Keighley; Amjad Ali Azam, 21, of Surrey Street, Keighley; Mohammed Iqbal, 24, of Salt Street, Manningham, Bradford; Perveez Ashraf, 26, of Victoria Park, View, Keighley; Zahir Bashir, 27, of Emley Street, Keighley; and Atif Younis, 22, of Buxton Street, Keighley, all deny conspiring to murder him.
The trial continues.
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