A Derby man was beaten to death with a baseball bat just yards from his home.
Jatinder Singh Dosanjh is accused of repeatedly smashing Melvyn Hadley junior with the weapon in Normanton, following an earlier scuffle between the pair.

He denies murder, saying he acted in self-defence.
Nirmal Shant QC, prosecuting, told Derby Crown Court yesterday that Dosanjh had been drinking and was outside his ex-girlfriend's house on his phone, loudly trying to persuade her to come out after she had finished with him.

She said remonstrations, during the early hours of July 29 last year, were said to have alerted neighbours, including an elderly man who, fearing for his safety, emerged from his home with the bat to try to reason with Dosanjh.

Ms Shant said that, moments later, Mr Hadley, who had left his house nearby with a female friend to buy some cigarettes, became involved in an argument with Dosanjh and the pair scuffled in the street.

The court heard that after the initial fight, Dosanjh, of Duncan Road, Derby, allegedly grabbed the bat while the elderly man's attention was distracted and attacked Mr Hadley.

A postmortem examination revealed the 20-year-old had suffered a fractured skull and died from severe head injuries.

Ms Shant said there was evidence that Mr Hadley had suffered at least 14 blows to the head.

Neither the bat nor clothing warn by Dosanjh on the night has been recovered.

Ms Shant said witnesses had heard Dosanjh shout a racist comment at Mr Hadley during the attack.

She said one elderly witness had claimed: "He was hitting him with force about the face and shoulders and the side of the ribs.

"He describes the defendant as 'hammering' the deceased.

"He said the deceased was not responding in any way to the blows.

"There was a pool of blood around his head,"

The court was told that Mr Hadley had been drinking and had visited the Coyote Wild bar in Derby city centre with friends earlier that evening.

Prior to the attack, the group had returned to his Almond Street home to continue drinking but Mr Hadley and a female friend had gone out to buy cigarettes.

Ms Shant said that about that time Dosanjh, 27, was in the road holding a Bacardi bottle and remonstrating loudly with his ex-girlfriend on the phone.

Several people saw Mr Hadley and Dosanjh scuffling but, she said, Mr Hadley eventually walked away.

However, Dosanjh is then said to have gone to the home of the elderly man with the baseball bat complaining that Mr Hadley had broken his nose.

She said: "The defendant asked for the bat but he (resident) refused."

She said Dosanjh then asked the man for some Coke to go with his Bacardi but when he returned with the drink, Dosanjh had taken the bat and gone back into the street.

She said one witness heard him shout "I'm going to smash you to pieces" to Mr Hadley.

Ms Shant said: "It came to a stage that he wielded that baseball bat in such a way that it caused the death of Mr Hadley."

She said that, after the attack, Dosanjh went to stay with a friend but turned himself in to police two days later.

She said that, after initially refusing to comment, he then claimed that Mr Hadley had made a racist comment to him and attacked him.

He claimed that, after the initial fight, Mr Hadley again approached him and that the elderly resident handed him the bat.

Ms Shant said: "He said there was a struggle for the bat and they both fell to the floor. He said he then hit him with the bat.

"He said he was scared and acting in self-defence."

Mr Hadley's mother, Tanya Higgins, who was in court with other family members, wept as some of the evidence was revealed.

The trial continues.


Yet another RACIST attack on an indigenous Briton that does not interest the National media.......

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/di...entPK=20617818