A student was crying hysterically with slash marks to her face and masking tape bound round her neck after she found her brother with his throat cut, a murder trial jury was told.

Sally Ho, 22, a pharmacy student at Bradford University, ran to a neighbour for help after she was attacked and tied to a chair at her home at Grantham Road, Great Horton, Bradford, on January 22 last year.

Her boyfriend, law student Gavin Stolarczyk, was stabbed and bound in the brutal assault and robbery.

Miss Ho’s brother, Tony Ho, 19, a chemistry and forensic science student, was discovered dead on her bed with multiple stab wounds and his throat cut.

One of the first police officers on the scene, dog handler PC Paul Smith, saw Mr Ho’s body under a quilt.

A fellow officer said in a statement read to Bradford Crown Court yesterday that PC Smith looked shocked when he came out of the blood-spattered house.

Paramedic Rebecca Taylor saw Mr Ho’s body under a duvet. There was a large cut to his throat and no signs of life.

Two 21-year-old Iraq Kurds, Reaben Kareem and Jwanru Osman, deny Mr Ho’s murder.

Kareem, of Walsall, West Midlands, admits wounding Miss Ho and Mr Stolarczyk with intent to cause them grievous bodily harm and conspiracy to rob.

Osman, of Northolt, Middlesex, denies those charges.

Prosecutor Paul Greaney QC said Kareem planned the robbery to pay his father back after stealing £920 from his bank account and losing it on the bet365 online gambling site.

Kareem self-excluded himself from the site in 2008 after losing £2,000 in two months.

He set up a new account in his father’s name and gambled away his money, the jury heard.

In the days before the robbery, his sister discovered he had taken their father’s money and demanded he repay it.

The trial continues.

  • Read the full story in Wednesday's T&A