A witness told a murder trial yesterday that he heard voices, an engine revving and a thud before he found a man lying dying outside his home.
Paul Armstrong, 47, was giving evidence at the trial of Scott Pearson, 22, who denies murdering Mohammed Abu Sammour at a housing development.
The witness, an area sales manager said: “I heard raised voices and the revving of an engine and a thud. I thought a car had maybe hit a kerb. Whoever was in the vehicle was wanting to get away quick and fast.
“I heard a groaning from outside.”
Paul told the High Court in Glasgow he went outside to investigate at about 1am last October 28 and found dad-of-four Mohammed gravely injured.
He said: “It was as if he had a mask on. The skin was all hanging off the side of his head.”
Mohammed, a security supervisor, was taken to Wishaw General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2.02am.
Ryan Hunter, 28, told the jury that his friend Pearson drove a Peugeot van that reversed over Mohammed. Hunter said he was a passenger.
He told the court he did not realise the van had struck Mohammed.
Hunter has admitted culpable homicide the basis that he was in the van that hit Mohammed.
He said he had been walking through the scheme in Newarthill, Lanarkshire with Pearson and an 18-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Hunter claimed the 18-year-old saw a Peugeot van, threw stones at it, then smashed a window.
He added that Mohammed got out the van and tried to grab Pearson.
Hunter said the 18-year-old hit Mohammed on the face with a brick and kicked him in the face, leaving him lying on the ground.
The court heard Pearson got in the driver’s seat and the other two sat in the passenger seats of Mohammed’s works van.
Prosecutor Murdo McTaggart asked Hunter: “Did you say anything to Scott Pearson about the man at the back of the van?”
He replied: “I said, ‘That guy’s still behind us.’ He looked in the wing mirrors and said, ‘He’s no.’”
Hunter said Pearson then reversed about six or seven feet.
Speaking about Mohammed’s death, Hunter said: It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t me.”
The trial continues.
