Sheffield murder trial: 'That's my sister under the car,' murder accused said after 'ploughing' car into crowd

Chris Marriott, aged 46, was hit, and killed, by a car as he stopped to assist Nafeesa Jhangur - the sister of the man accused of murdering him - who was unconscious in the street, while a disturbance was ongoing on College Close, Burngreave, Sheffield, on December 27, 2023. 

Five others - Hasan Khan, Riasat Khan, Ambreen Jhangur, Nafeesa Jhangur and passing midwife Alison Norris - who also stopped to help the injured woman - were also injured during the course of the same incident.

24-year-old Hassan Jhangur is currently on trial at Sheffield Crown Court, accused of Mr Marriott’s murder. He is also alleged to have committed a number of other offences including attempted murder, grievous bodily harm with intent and wounding with intent, relating to the five others injured during the course of the same incident, all of which he denies.

During the second day of the trial yesterday (Wednesday, June 19, 2024), the jury heard live evidence from Lisa Poulton, a resident from a nearby property, which overlooks the junction of College Close and College Court. 

Ms Poulton was on the street when the fatal collision occurred, and described how, in the moments following it, she saw the driver of the vehicle exit the car, appearing to be ‘in shock’. 

“He had his hands on his face, and said: ‘That’s my sister under the car’,” she said. 

The jury have previously been told that Nafeesa Jhangur, Hassan Jhangur’s sister, suffered ‘life threatening’ injuries in the collision; after becoming trapped under the vehicle, along with Mr Marriott.

Ms Poulton said the crowds on the street prior to the collision, were ‘mingling about trying to help’ in the moments following it, when, amid the confusion, a fight ensued. 

“There was shouting and fighting. I couldn’t understand why everyone was screaming and fighting when there was people injured under the car,” she said. 

Following the fatal collision, in which Mr Marriott was killed, Hassan Jhangur is alleged to have got out of the vehicle he was driving ‘as soon as it halted’ in the front garden of a nearby property and proceeded to stab his new brother-in-law, Hasan Khan, multiple times.

Opening the prosecution case to the jury, Tom Storey KC said the incident took place hours after Mr Jhangur’s sister, Amaani, married Hasan Khan and followed an altercation between the Jhangur and Khan families. 

He said the ‘catalyst’ for it appears to have been the Jhangur family being ‘disapproving’ of the union between the pair, and the subsequent arrival of Nafeesa Jhangur and Ambreen Jhangur - Hassan Jhangur’s mother and sister, respectively - at the Khan family home shortly after wedding celebrations had got underway. An argument subsequently broke out between members of the Khan and Jhangur families, during which Nafeesa Jhangur ‘fell to the ground’ and was seemingly rendered unconscious, Mr Storey said. 

Ms Poulton said that prior to the collision, she witnessed two Asian women arrive at a property on the street and throw bin liners onto a driveway of a property she knew to be occupied by members of the Khan family, before leaving the scene.

The two women returned a short time later, and did the same thing again, she told the jury. 

Ms Poulton said that the bin liners thrown during the women’s first visit were still there when they arrived on the second occasion, which prompted members of the Khan family to come outside. 

“[There was] lots of shouting and arguing; and they started pushing each other around, fighting…squabbling with each other, and then there was fighting breaking out. They were pushing each other, and everything,” Ms Poulton said. 

Another resident, James Hammond watched the fatal incident unfold from an upstairs window of his home, which also overlooks the junction of College Close and College Court. 

Detailing the moment when Hassan Jhangur is alleged to have driven into a crowd of people on College Close, killing Mr Marriott and injuring four others , Mr Hammond told the jury: “I saw the car on the wrong side of the road, coming into College Close, and aimed at Chris and the young woman,” referring to Mr Marriott and Nafeesa Jhangur, Hassan Jhangur’s sister and the woman seen lying in the road. 

He continued: “It ploughed straight into them.”

Mr Hammond told the jury that he saw it ‘hit’ Mr Marriott, Alison Norris - the midwife he had observed stopping to assist - and Nafeesa Jhangur. 

When asked by prosecutor Tom Storey KC if he saw the vehicle come to a stop, Mr Hammond said: “It came to a stop…about a foot away from my front door…on my lawn under my front window.”

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“From seeing what I saw, I knew Chris was underneath.” 

Mr Storey responded: “Is that because you could no longer see Chris?”

Mrs Justice Lambert KC added: “You assumed Chris was under the car because you could no longer see him?”

“That’s correct,” said Mr Hammond. 

He told the jury that he could also see Nafeesa Jhangur ‘under the rear of the car, under the boot, half in, half out’.

In the seconds prior to the incident taking place, Mr Hammond said he heard the driver of the vehicle ‘revving’. 

When prosecutor, Tim Storey KC, asked about the speed the vehicle was travelling at, Mr Hammond said he believed it was travelling at an ‘inappropriate’ speed.  

Following the collision, Mr Hammond said he observed the driver get out of the vehicle, and said he ‘looked spaced out,’ based on his ‘behaviour and the look on his face’. 

Mr Hammond, who is a neighbour to members of the Khan family, said that prior to the fatal collision, he witnessed an ‘argument’ that took place between individuals from that family, and others he had not seen before. His attention was drawn to the ‘kerfuffle,’ after hearing ‘shouting’ coming from outside.

He told the jury that a woman he knew to be the daughter of Ali - identified as Riasat Khan by Mr Storey - and Nafeesa Khan, the woman who was subsequently seen lying motionless in the road were ‘pulling on each other’s hair’.

“The mother was doing her best to break it up,” said Mr Hammond, and said Nas, Riasat Khan’s brother, ‘had’ Riasat’s daughter ‘around the waist’ and was trying to pull her away.

“Ali was hitting her repeatedly,” continued Mr Hammond, clarifying that he was referring to the injured woman - Nafeesa Khan - and that he saw Ali hitting her to the ‘head and shoulders,’ when asked.

He said the ‘altercation’ which he estimated as having lasted for about ‘six minutes,’ subsequently led to her ‘being unconcscious’.

When Mr Storey asked about the circumstances that led to her ‘falling to the floor,’ Mr Hammond told the court: “I think being hit repeatedly while having your hair pulled would lead to said injuries.”

Hassan Jhangur’s father, Mohammed Jhangur, has gone on trial alongside him, accused of one count of perverting the course of justice, which he denies. 

Mr Storey said it is the Crown’s case that in the moments after Hassan Jhangur allegedly stabbed Hasan Khan, Mohammed Jhangur, aged 56, took the weapon his son had ‘wielded’ and ‘placed it out of sight in his locked car’. 

“The clear inference is that he did so intending to thwart or hamper the inevitable police investigation, by concealing a key piece of evidence which – so far as he knew – might have had very damaging consequences for his own son and the extent of his involvement in what had occurred at College Close,” Mr Storey said.

Moving to the Crown’s case against Hassan Jhangur, Mr Storey continued: “Hassan Jhangur unlawfully killed Chris Marriott, using his vehicle as a weapon, at a time when he intended to cause at least very serious harm; he also caused very serious harm to four other people, again at a time when he intended that consequence, namely to cause really serious harm.

“And Hassan Jhangur then stabbed Hasan Khan in circumstances which make clear that he intended to kill him.”

Hassan Jhangur has previously pleaded guilty to causing Mr Marriott’s death by dangerous driving, and causing serious injury by dangerous driving to the others hit by his vehicle. 

He denies Mr Marriott’s murder, however, as well as the alternative count of manslaughter. Hassan Jhangur has also entered not guilty pleas to one count of attempted murder, relating to the alleged stabbing of Hasan Khan, four counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and two counts of wounding with intent.

Mohammed Jhangur, also of Whiteways Road, Grimesthorpe, Sheffield, denies one count of perverting the course of justice. 

The trial, which is expected to last five weeks, continues.