Murder accused said 'friend tried to kill him'
CLEVELAND POLICEA man accused of murdering his friend with an axe told paramedics the victim had "tried to kill him", a court has heard.
Prosecutors said Callum Howe, 23, repeatedly struck Mohammed Shaan Ali Rasul, also 23, in the face at a flat in Hartlepool on 23 November, Teesside Crown Court heard.
An ambulance crew member who initially attended the scene after Howe jumped from the first-floor window said the accused appeared "very agitated and paranoid" and was covered in blood.
Howe, of Blakelock Gardens, Hartlepool, denies murder and claims he acted in self-defence.
Jurors previously heard Rasul and another man had been staying with Howe in a flat on Allerton Close in the days before the attack, with the trio taking lots of drugs and not sleeping in the lead up.
Residents in the cul-de-sac were first alerted to an incident at about 10:30 GMT on 23 November, after neighbours in the flat below Howe's heard banging above them.
Howe jumped out of the first floor flat window, and was captured on CCTV stumbling around the street and calling out for help, the court heard.
Neighbours called an ambulance for Howe as several described seeing him covered in blood, one woman saying he looked like he had been attacked and had injuries on his face, the court heard.
An ambulance crew received a call at 10:44 to reports of a male believed to have fallen from a window.
Ambulance support practitioner Robert Bloxham told jurors he tended to Howe in a neighbour's garden after the defendant had tried to flee the area.
He told the court Howe, whose pupils were dilated and who was largely incoherent and unsteady on his feet, said he believed the paramedics were there to kill him.
When asked by defence barrister, Nicholas Lumley KC, if he thought Howe was frightened of him, Bloxham replied: "I got the impression he was frightened of everybody."
'Determined to get away'
After becoming further agitated and continually trying to fight off the paramedics, the team tried to restrain him with the help of two local residents, the court heard.
When police arrived he was put into handcuffs which he began biting at, with one medic describing hearing "his teeth cracking" against the metal.
Howe was "determined to get away", the medic added.
When searched in the ambulance a large bag of white powder was found in his possession, with Howe telling another paramedic he had taken cocaine, the court heard.
On the way to North Tees Hospital, Stockton, Howe told a paramedic he remembered coming out of the window and fell on his back, the court heard.
"He also mentioned his friend tried to kill him and he wanted us to pull the ambulance over so he could get out," the woman told jurors.
After seeing blood on the window Howe had jumped from, police and paramedics entered the flat to see if anyone else was injured, the court heard.
Once an Akita believed to belong to Rasul had been secured by a police dog handler, a paramedic discovered the victim's body lying on a duvet next to the bed and covered in blood, the court heard.
Emergency services performed CPR but he was declared dead a short time later, jurors heard.
The trial continues.
