DPD driver murder: Five guilty of Shrewsbury ambush killing

Four men who used an arsenal of weapons to beat a DPD delivery driver to death after ambushing him have been found guilty of murder.

Aurman Singh, 23, who was tracked by the gang on his round, sustained serious head injuries when he was struck with an axe, in Shrewsbury.

Witnesses described seeing him repeatedly struck with the weapon in the attack, last August.

After a trial at Stafford Crown Court, four men were convicted of murder.

A fifth man was cleared of murder but has been found guilty of manslaughter.

During the five-week trial, the court heard that between them the killers used an axe, a golf club, a wooden stave, a metal club, a hockey stick, a shovel, a cricket bat, and a knife, during the fatal attack.

In a statement issued after the verdict, Mr Singh's family said: "There are no words that could ever explain the impact this tragedy has had."

Those guilty of murder are:

Sukhmandeep Singh, 24, from Paynels, in Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, was convicted of manslaughter.

The five defendants are due to be sentenced at a later date.

West Mercia Police said detectives had worked with a number of other forces during a "complex investigation" to bring the killers to justice.

Prosecutors had told the court that a total of eight men had travelled in two cars - a black Audi and a white Mercedes - to Berwick Avenue in Shrewsbury, where they lay in wait for Aurman Singh.

The men had been directed by a ninth man - Sukhmandeep Singh - from the DPD depot in Stoke-on-Trent, where the victim was based, the jury was told.

Four other men believed to have been involved in the fatal attack are still at large, police have said.

The court heard that on the day he was murdered, Mr Singh and a colleague were due to make a delivery in Berwick Avenue.

As they pulled up in their van, Mr Singh's colleague got out of the vehicle to deliver a package.

Unknown to them however, the eight men had been waiting for them in their cars down the road, before following the van when it arrived in Berwick Avenue.

Seven of the eight men then jumped out, each of them concealing his face with a mask and carrying a weapon.

Prosecutors said Mr Singh was chopped in the head three times with the axe, fracturing his skull with one blow penetrating his brain.

He was also clubbed over the head with the golf club with such force, its head broke off and the shaft was left bent.

Mr Singh was also attacked with the hockey stick and a wooden stave, before being stabbed in the back with such force, the knife cut through one of his ribs.

It was an attack intended to kill him, prosecutors said, and he was left to die in a pool of blood on the side of the road.

Witnesses told the court that after the attack finished, they had seen Mr Singh lying sprawled across the pavement.

The Crown Prosecution Service said that throughout the trial, no evidence had been submitted to indicate a motive for the ferocious attack.

"It isn't necessary in order to prove murder to prove a motive, to prove why it happened," prosecutors told the court early in the case.

"And in this case the prosecution will not try to prove why it happened. We don't have evidence to prove why it happened."

In their statement, Mr Singh's family said: "Today a mother will grow old without her son. A sister will grow up without her brother. We don't want what has happened to us to happen to another family.

"It is an unbearable loss for us which has changed our lives. My daughter and myself will be living our lives for the sake of it but our happiness and the will to live is not there."

Det Ch Ins Mark Bellamy, who led the murder investigation, said that despite none of the men having links with Shrewsbury, Mr Singh's murder had had significant local impact.

"Today's verdict should send a strong message to those who think they can come into our towns and cities to commit violent crime that we will not stop in our efforts to find them and put them before the courts," he said.

"This was a complex investigation which saw us work with police forces across the country and I'd like to thank the investigation team and those involved for their hard work and commitment."