Judge begins summing up in Hartlepool murder trial linked to Israel-Palestine conflict

Ahmed Alid, 45, is accused of murdering Terence Carney, 70, in Hartlepool town centre, minutes after repeatedly knifing his Christian convert housemate Javed Nouri, 31, in his bed in Wharton Terrace last October.

Alid, from Morocco, was allegedly motivated out of “revenge” for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

He admits attacking both men but has claimed he did not intend to kill them in a trial at Teesside Crown Court.

The judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb summarised the law in the case to the jury on Thursday morning.

She said Alid's political and religious views were relevant to consider as a background and context to his actions that day on Sunday, October 15.

But whether they agreed or disagreed with his views were not, she said.

The judge said: “It’s possible, indeed likely, that most of you will have views on those topics. But if you have you should simply put them aside because they are irrelevant.”

She added: “You must put aside any emotional response you have had to the evidence.”

But the judge also urged the jury to exercise “caution and restraint” about Alid’s views generally.

"Confine yourself to whether he has committed the offences charged,” she said.

She told the jury they did not have to consider defences of diminished responsibility, loss of self control, or self defence.

Instead she told them to focus on the central issue of Alid’s intentions.

The case continues.