A YOUNG father was heard “screaming” and “calling for help” as he was murdered in a remote lane, a court was told.

Residents near Distillery Lane were awoken by a car horn being sounded “erratically” before the body of Bako Azad Sheikha, 22, was found in the road in the early hours of September 12 last year.

An eyewitness, whose bedroom in Waterside Lane overlooks Distillery Lane, told Chelmsford Crown Court the sound woke her and her husband up at 1.50am.

She told the jury: “We heard the sound of screaming towards Haven Road. It was hard to identify if it was a man or a woman screaming because it was quite high pitched.

Gazette: Investigation - a forensics team probes Distillery LaneInvestigation - a forensics team probes Distillery Lane (Image: Newsquest)

Gazette: Murder investigation - Bako lived with Rakar Rahimi in Haven Road, ColchesterMurder investigation - Bako lived with Rakar Rahimi in Haven Road, Colchester (Image: Newsquest)

“It was difficult to identify if it was a human or an animal.”

The witness said when she went to her bedroom window she could hear somebody “in distress, shouting, crying, calling for help.”

She told the court the car was being driven erratically and its driver was “twisted around awkwardly doing something to somebody in the back seat” for about four minutes.

The witness said she saw the driver attempt to do a U-turn in the road and crash into a wall before “accelerating at a really funny angle”.

Gazette: Cordon - police officers guard Distillery LaneCordon - police officers guard Distillery Lane (Image: Newsquest)

Police officers were called to Distillery Lane where they found Bako Azad Sheikha, who fled to the UK from Iraq in 2015, had suffered fatal injuries.

An inquest opening found he died from a stab wound to the heart and neighbours had seen him being run over “multiple times”.

Rakar Rahimi, 23, was charged with murdering Bako, who he lived with in Haven Road, and is facing a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Andrew Jackson, prosecuting, said Bako suffered injuries consistent with being caused by a “crushing mechanism”.

Gazette: Family - Bako, left, with his brother ZankoFamily - Bako, left, with his brother Zanko (Image: Newsquest)

Jurors have already been told how Rahimi took Bako’s money, mobile phone and Nissan Qashqai and fled the scene before crashing in Colchester Road, near Tolleshunt D’Arcy.

Later that day he was arrested in Dover, Kent, trying to escape to France.

Rahimi, of Wellington Street, Ipswich, denies murder.

  • The trial continues