'Vehicle used to ferry killers from Hartlepool shotgun murder found torched' jury told

Kurdistan-born British citizen Hamawand Ali Hussain, 30, died instantly at the terraced house in Charterhouse Street, Hartlepool, on September 14 last year, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The black Hyundai Santa Fe was found ablaze down a country lane off the A19 in North Yorkshire at around 7pm on September 14 in 2019.

Less than an hour earlier, the vehicle is alleged to have been in Westbourne Road, Hartlepool and used by five men to flee the scene after the murder of Hamawand Ali Hussain, 30, in Charterhouse Street.

Mr Hussain from Stockton, who is said to have been involved in setting up cannabis farms in the Hartlepool area, was killed after he was shot at close range with a shotgun.

Qazim Marku, 24, of Maxwell Road, West Drayton, London, and Noza Saffari, 39, of Park Lane, Middlesbrough, on trial for murder, are alleged to have been in the Santa Fe when it left Hartlepool.

Two other men, Anxhelo Xhaferi, 24, of Acton Street, Middlesbrough; and Dorian Pirija, 33, of Trillo Avenue, Bolton, are also on trial for murder at Teesside Crown Court.

The jury has heard much detail of phone contact between the defendants and others, and vehicle movements leading up to Mr Hussain’s murder.

Marku’s barrister, Nicholas Corsellis QC, told the jury on Monday, January 25, his client says he went to the house in Charterhouse Street because he hoped to be given a job in a cannabis farm.

Mr Corsellis said: “Mr Marku said he was upstairs when he heard a loud bang and then he ran away.”

Barristers for the defendants also cross examined Cleveland Police intelligence analyst Leanne Hodgson about the phone and vehicle evidence against their clients.

Nicholas Lumley QC, defending Xhaferi, seen in the area preceding the murder, put it to her: “At the critical time of the shooting in Hartlepool his phone was in Middlesbrough town centre.”

Ms Hodgson said: “Yes, that’s correct.”

She also agreed that Xhaferi, had never contacted the victim Mr Hussain by phone or the defendants Maku, Saffari and Pirija.

And Ms Hodgson agreed with John Elvidge QC, defending Saffari, that masts used to identify a phone’s location cover quite large areas.

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