Kiaran Stapleton killed Anuj Bidve to make name for himself as a 'hardman'
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereven...man-court-told
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The killer of Indian student Anuj Bidve gunned him down because he wanted to make a name for himself as a ‘hardman’, it was alleged in his murder trial.
Kiaran Stapleton shot the 23-year-old micro-economics postgraduate at Ordsall Lane in the early hours of Boxing Day.
Stapleton, 21, of Regent Square, Ordsall, Salford, admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but denies murder at Manchester Crown Court.
Giving evidence from the dock in his defence, the 21-year-old was questioned about three violent incidents he was involved in over the last year.
They included a road rage incident last July when he rammed a motorist’s car in Salford, the killing of Mr Bidve, and an attack on another inmate while on remand in Strangeways in April.
Stapleton appeared agitated as Brian Cummings QC, prosecuting, suggested that in each case Stapleton had been in control of his actions and had attacked his victims from behind in a ‘cowardly’ way.
Mr Cummings said of Anuj’s murder: "You’ve done it from behind. He’s turned his head towards you. If it wasn’t for that you’d have shot him in the back of the head. A controlled attack – absolutely arranged for that there’s no threat to you whatsoever.
"That’s your problem isn’t it? You don’t regard yourself as man enough to take other people on equal terms. This is why you’re trying to make a name for yourself, to pretend you’re something different."
"That’s not the case", Stapleton replied.
The prosecutor suggested that Stapleton had been thinking about killing someone for a thrill and that Anuj had been the ‘perfect’ target, because he was at the back of a group of people, allowing the killer to escape unchallenged, and presented no threat to him, as a 5ft 4ins foreigner.
Stapleton, who claims his friend Ryan Holden passed him the gun moments beforehand, denied this.
He claimed he did not feel ‘responsible’ for what he did, saying of the weapon: "I didn’t know it was loaded."
He then said of himself: "I didn’t know what I was doing at the time", and saying of Holden "if he hadn’t handed me that firearm it would have never happened."
Mr Holden denies passing him the weapon.
The prosecution say that Stapleton used his phone to look for news stories on the killing in the aftermath. He claimed that Mr Holden was responsible for the searches, denying that he was ‘enjoying the buzz’ of press attention.
Later, Mr Cummings put it to him that he was quite happy about local rumours connecting him to the shooting so that he "could get a reputation as a hardman."
"Working in a factory for £250 a week, I don’t think so", said Stapleton.
The jury has been played a tape of a phone call from prison just over a week ago in which Stapleton asks his family to buy him an identical cardigan to the one ‘I murdered Anuj Bidve’ with. Asked why, he said ‘because I liked it’.
Asked why he used the word murder, Stapleton added, "it was a comment to my brother, can’t tell you."
"You used the word murder because that’s the truth" the prosecutor said.
"No, that’s not the truth," said Stapleton.
During his evidence the killer admitted that he hoped he would never be caught, and described how he sat down in his cell and thought up a plan to escape blame for the killing following his arrest, saying, "I even think I jotted it down on a piece of paper". However, he denied that he was now ‘cutting his losses’ by admitting manslaughter.
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