Mum tells court she was ‘smoking crack as man stabbed to death’ | UK | News

A mother accused of murder told a court she smoked cocaine in a car parked outside when a man was fatally stabbed in a nearby flat. Paul Foster, 47, died after suffering a single stab wound to the back during a “taxation” on Muirhead Avenue in West Derby.

The attackers were reportedly “armed” with a knife and imitation firearm during the robbery, and smuggled drugs and a quantity of cash from the property before fleeing the scene. The five defendants – Elsadig Abrahim, Zayd Alasaly, Dylan Blundell, Michael Fields and Sarah Kasseum – are currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court and have each been charged with murder.

Kasseum began presenting his evidence to the jury Thursday afternoon. During questioning by his barrister Peter Finnigan KC, he also told how Blundell informed him that he witnessed Fields “holding a knife” to Alasaly and “slapping” Mr Foster following the stabbing.

Dressed in all black in the witness box, Kasseum appeared visibly emotional as he swore on a Bible before denying he had any intention of killing or seriously injuring the victim. He also claimed that he had no knowledge that the other occupants of the flat were armed with knives and an air gun, and insisted that he was completely unaware of any planned robbery.

Kasseum explained that he had been a crack cocaine user “for years” and that he also sold drugs to finance his habit. Referring to the hours before the stabbing, the woman described how she was found at the home of a man called Tony Conroy in St Mary’s Close, Wavertree, and said: “I was smoking a pipe in the living room. I think Ziggy [Abrahim] and Dylan was in the living room with me. Zayd, Mick and Tony were talking in the kitchen. We smoked our pipe and then went down.”

Asked “how much crack he consumed” that day, Kasseum replied, “I can’t tell you too much.” Regarding the drug’s effect on him, he said: “It really keeps me awake. I smoke my pipe, I get chills. I was up for two or three days. I was fine. I was aware of what was going on around me.”

“They were all trying to buy heroin. It was too late. They weren’t open. They didn’t answer. Some people were calling 24/7. Sometimes they ran out of heroin or used more drugs.”

When Mr. Finnigan asked the subject of the conversation at this point, Kasseum replied: “The usual. Chatting. Mick chattering. The usual. Basically crazy talk, nothing out of the ordinary.”

Kasseum, who along with various acquaintances at the time had no home and no place to stay, recalled: “I was supposed to sing at Tony Conroy’s but I wasn’t staying there because Kieran Hannon was staying there. Not that I couldn’t. I could have but I didn’t want to because of Kieran Hannon. He was just a nuisance, always trying to attack me.”

“I was either going back to Eugene [Brown]of or [Paul] It was at Tully’s house, but Tully was in town, so I decided to go back to Eugene’s house. I asked Mick if he could give me a ride. He said yes. He said shoot here with me first. He said shoot with me here, on Muirhead Boulevard, and then I’ll drop you off. He said he was going to Muirhead Avenue to see that Pablo kid.

“I had just found out about him through Mick, only that Mick owed him money. He had given him some money before, he had given him something to sell, and he owed him some money. That was the talk all day long in Eugene.”

After setting off in Fields’ Kia Ceed with Blundell as co-passenger, Kasseum said: “The conversation in the car was about whether or not he could get an answer from the boy Pablo. He had been ignoring him for a few days. Mick hadn’t heard anything from him. He said, ‘Can you get out for me? You’ve got a better chance of getting in, he’ll ignore me.’

“I said yes. I didn’t know anything. I thought he was just going to get the money he owed. He was just going to get the money from that kid. He also said he could take Bobby.” [heroin] For them it’s Ziggy and Dylan.

“I went out. I was a little ahead. They were behind me. I rang the bell. A girl came and knocked on the upper window. She moved away from the window and then rang the door to get in.” Opening the door of the apartment, Kasseum stated that he “left and returned to the car” and continued: “I was smoking my pipe in the car. I was just listening to music.”

Kasseum explained that the men then returned to the vehicle, “quickly, like ‘get in the car’, closed the doors” and said: “I said what happened to Mick? Did you get your money? And he said fuck me. My man slapped him. Slap him.”

At this point, Fields was said to have gestured toward Alasaly before the car was driven away, “quickly turning back the way we came.”

Kasseum recounted: “We pulled up close to Tony. Dylan and Ziggy were in the car. Zayd and Mick got out of the car and ran to Tony’s car. I turned to Dylan and said, what happened, kid? Dylan turned and said he saw Mick handing Zayd the knife.”

Kasseum explained that he then asked “someone to call me a taxi” because he “wanted to get off”. The artist, who set off with Abrahim and Blundell in the vehicle, described the “atmosphere” at that moment as follows: “They were silent. It was scary. My head was everywhere. I didn’t know what was happening.”

The jury of six men and six women had previously heard during the prosecution opening last week that Mr Foster was selling drugs from the Muirhead Avenue home of a deceased woman named Lyndzi McCowan; Fields was alleged to have driven four of his co-accused in his black Kia Ceed car shortly after 1.30am on October 15, 2024. David McLachlan KC, prosecuting, said: “They were not going to Muirhead Avenue. It was a small journey in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“The prosecution says they were in the car for a purpose and it was not a good purpose. The purpose was to steal Paul Foster’s money and drugs by a method commonly known as extortion, and they were armed with equipment. By that we mean they were armed with a knife and an imitation firearm.”

On arrival, Kasseum was allegedly “assigned to gain access” to the property via intercom, claiming he was “in the know” and “close enough to Paul Foster to know where he was and what he was doing.”

Mr McLachlan told the court: “Lyndzi McCowan let her in. This didn’t work and no one actually came to the flat so Lyndzi McCowan walked downstairs to speak to the girl, Sarah Kasseum, who walked in.

“As she went downstairs, she encountered three men running towards her. They were dressed in black. She did not see the girl she saw through the window. Lyndzi McCowan undoubtedly ran into the flat as fast as she could and tried to block the door against the men trying to rush in. She was screaming. She realized the men were there to rob Paul Foster.” These guys are asking “where is it?”, “where are its parts?” he was heard saying. and “where is the money?” and was said to be armed with “what appeared to be a gun.” Mr McLachlan added: “During this confrontation Paul Foster was fatally stabbed in the back.

“What did they do? Well, they were tracked down. They fled the scene. They took the money they stole from the apartment. They were reported to be wearing all black clothing and ski masks. A blood-stained black metal piece, which was the plastic slide component of the air gun, was seized at 40A Muirhead Blvd. The knife was never found.”

“It is the prosecution’s case that Paul Foster’s death was a direct result of drug taxation in the place where he lived and sold drugs. The prosecution’s case is that Michael Fields led the criminals to the scene, Sarah Kasseum was present at the scene and acted as a decoy, pretending to be someone who wanted to buy drugs from Paul Foster.”

“But he was there for a completely different purpose, namely to facilitate access to the flat for the purpose of carrying out taxation. “The men, named Michael Fields, Elsadig Abrahim, Zayd Alasaly and Dylan Blundell, then entered. Armed with a gun, a knife and an imitation firearm, they went in to do their business.

“The prosecution case is that all five defendants went to 40A Muirhead Avenue to steal Paul Foster’s drugs and money. They surrendered to the mob. They were armed with a knife and a firearm. The prosecution case is that they shared a common goal, and that common goal was undoubtedly to rob Paul Foster and, if it came to that, which unfortunately it did, to commit murder.”

“Was the stabbing of Paul Foster, if it came to be, part of a joint enterprise? That will be a question for you to consider. The prosecution case clearly was, and you will have to consider individually what the intention of each of the defendants in this case was.”

“The prosecution’s case is that when the defendants went to rob Paul Foster, they did so knowing that if the incident occurred, they would be able to use their jointly owned weapons to deliberately injure or inflict grievous bodily harm. The knife was not a toy, the jurors said.”

Abrahim, 61, of Croxteth Road, Toxteth, Alasaly, 23, of Corinto Street, Toxteth, Blundell, 26, of Corsewall Street, Wavertree, Kasseum, 41, of Lower Breck Road, Anfield, and Fields, 50, of no fixed address, all deny murder and possession of a sharp instrument in a public place. Abrahim, Alasaly and Kasseum also pleaded not guilty to robbery and carrying an imitation firearm for the purpose of committing a crime. However, Blundell and Fields accept these two accusations; Fields also pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter. The hearings, presided over by Judge Simon Medland KC, continue.