Overview
- Police found 23‑year‑old Mohammed Shaan Ali Rasul dead in a flat in Allerton Close, Hartlepool, on November 23 after paramedics tried to resuscitate him and an axe was recovered beside the bedroom window.
- Prosecutors told jurors that Rasul sustained massive facial injuries from repeated axe blows and that police bodycam and flat footage show the weapon at the scene.
- CCTV and neighbour doorbell footage shown to the court captured the defendant, 23‑year‑old Callum Howe, jumping from a first‑floor bedroom window then staggering, colliding with cars and falling before being arrested.
- The prosecution says Howe had about 15g of cocaine and showed signs of drug use at hospital while the defence relies on a solicitor‑read prepared statement in which Howe says he and Rasul had been taking drugs and that he acted in self‑defence after Rasul attacked him with a hatchet.
- The trial at Teesside Crown Court continues as the jury considers the competing accounts and the physical and video evidence, with a verdict and any sentence pending.