Heroin addicts jailed after admitting killing Newport dad (From South Wales Argus)

Heroin addicts jailed after admitting killing Newport dad

3:16pm Saturday 14th July 2012 in News By Ben Frampton - Crime reporter

TWO heroin addicts were each jailed for ten years yesterday after admitting killing a Newport father.

Caerphilly men Karl Drummond, 37, of Attlee Court, and Shahid Rafiq, 37, of Bryn yr Ysgol, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Tony Singh at Cardiff Crown Court.

Mr Singh, a father-of-one, was hit over the head with a metal bar and suffered complex skull fractures and an extradural haemorrhage which caused bleeding and pressure on the brain, on November 11, 2010.

He was able to walk home to his flat on Bryngwyn Road after the attack, but collapsed and was found dead on November 15.

Rafiq called Mr Singh, a drug dealer, on the day of the attack as their previous attempt to buy heroin resulted in them being ripped off and paying money for gravy powder.

The two men came from Caerphilly in a van and met Mr Singh but, on the way, Rafiq told Drummond he had been attacked by drug dealers in Newport during a deal a few days previously.

With that in mind, Drummond picked up a metal bar and concealed it in his sleeve.

The court heard the meeting between the three descended into an altercation, and Drummond hit Mr Singh with the bar at least three times.

Once he was on the floor, the pair went through his pockets and took £15 and a Blackberry.

Defending Drummond, John Charles Rees said the plea was on the basis it was selfdefence taken too far and was a response to Mr Singh punching Drummond in the face. He said this was not a case where the defendants left their victim in a bad way in the street.

Ian Murphy, representing Rafiq, said: “He is keen to put forward his sense of remorse and guilt, and the consequences of what he did.”

Sentencing them, judge John Curran said he did not accept either man’s version of events, and considered the killing a joint enterprise.

Drummond and Rafiq were acquitted of murder and cleared of conspiracy to rob following a 13-week trial in April.

A third man, George Glover, 40, of Graham Court, Caerphilly, was found not guilty of both charges but jurors were not able to reach verdicts on the murder charge, or an alternative charge of manslaughter for Rafiq and Drummond, so they were discharged.

This followed the original trial in 2011, which was halted after friends of Mr Singh contacted a juror.