Snapchat teen murder suspect from Luton posted video as victim lay bleeding to death

A teenage boy posted a video of his 63-year-old stabbing victim bleeding to death on Snapchat, a court has heard.

The murder trial jury heard how the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, posted the clip of Ghulam Raja after stabbing him four times across his body.

Prosecutor Sarah Morris said that before the attack the teenager was heard to shout: “I am going to kill him.”

The boy denies the charge of murder and told officers at the time of his arrest the stabbing was in self-defence. 

Prosecutor Ms Morris told Luton Crown Court the teenager stabbed Mr Raja with a kitchen knife, once to the front right thigh, once to the neck and twice to the head.

She said: “This defendant did not call for an ambulance.”

She added: “He unlocked his mobile phone, went into the Snapchat app and recorded a seven or eight seconds video clip and uploaded it to Snapchat.” 

He recorded Mr Raja, who had travelled to Luton to visit his elderly mother, bleeding heavily on a bed that had been set up in the living room.

The boy, who is now 17, denies murdering Mr Raja, from Bolton, on 15 November.

The court heard how after speaking to a relative, the boy dialled 999 saying: “There has been a murder.”

He said the victim had been stabbed and he was the offender. When asked by the operator what weapon had been used, he is said to have replied sarcastically: “A knife innit, what do you think? I done it. It was self-defence though.”

Ms Morris told the jury of six men and six women “He gets to broadcast [the clip] over social media and is boasting to the people who know him. He is someone who is aggressive and desperately hyped-up.

“He went to the kitchen, armed himself with a kitchen knife. The victim was unarmed.”

Mr Raja was taken to hospital, where he died five days later.

At the start of the trial the judge, Justice Jeremy Johnson KC, told the jury: “It is unlikely there will be a dispute that he caused the injuries that led to the death.” 

He said the defence would be that he was defending himself and another person in the house.

The trial continues. 

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