Hartlepool murder suspects caught on camera ‘fleeing scene and drive out of town'

Kurdistan-born British citizen Hamawand Ali Hussain, 30, was killed after he was shot at point blank range with a sawn-off shotgun inside a house in Charterhouse Street, in the Oxford Road area, on September 14 last year, Teesside Crown Court has heard.

Four men on trial for murder are Noza Saffari, 39, Anxhelo Xhaferi, 24, Dorian Pirija, 33, and Qazim Marku, 24.

A number of other men, who have never been traced, are also said to have been involved.

CCTV taken from the Oxford Road area at about 6pm on the day of Mr Hussain’s death was played to the jury on Thursday, January 21.

The prosecution allege it shows Saffari get in a white Honda Hilux being driven by Mr Hussain.

Related story: Murder suspects ‘tracked to vicinity through their mobile phone and vehicle movements’

Just minutes later CCTV taken from nearby Cornwall Street at around 6.15pm showed three men, including allegedly the defendant Qazim Marku, hurrying away from the direction of Charterhouse Street.

Two more men, alleged to include Saffari, follow shortly behind and all get in a black Hyundai Santa Fe vehicle parked around the corner in Westbourne Road before leaving town.

At around the same time, footage of another suspect, who has not been traced, was also played showing him get into a Fiat 500 car in Rossall Street and also leave Hartlepool and head south on the A19.

Saffari, of Park Lane, Middlesbrough; Xhaferi, of Acton Street, Middlesbrough; Pirija, of Trillo Avenue, Bolton; and Marku, of Maxwell Road, West Drayton, London, all deny murder.

The trial continues.

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