Three Sheffield suspects deny manslaughter after 'laughing gas' delivery man died following alleged robbery

A Sheffield Crown Court trial heard on January 3 how Callum Rutherford, Jake Lakin and Arron Hartigan have all pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of 40-year-old Nadeem Qureshi who was found seriously injured on wasteland off Station Road, at Deepcar, near Stocksbridge, in Sheffield, on July 24, 2019, before he died on the same day.

Mr Rutherford, aged 26, of Lee Avenue, at Deepcar, Sheffield, Mr Lakin, aged 22, of Smithy Moor Avenue, at Stocksbridge, Sheffield, and Mr Hartigan, aged 25, of Stocksbridge, Sheffield, have also all pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit a robbery and to having an imitation firearm with intent to commit a robbery.

Prosecuting barrister Nicholas Campbell KC said: “Nadeem Qureshi was killed early one summer’s evening in 2019. The prosecution case is that he had been the target of a robbery which did not go according to plan and the result was that he was killed unlawfully. He was the victim of what our legal system calls a criminal offence of manslaughter.”

Mr Campbell added that Mr Qureshi was a passenger in a Transit van with a driver and another passenger and they had been making a delivery of nitrous oxide canisters which had allegedly been arranged with Mr Rutherford who had allegedly used a false name and had allegedly agreed to pay £3,400.

But when the van arrived at Station House, at Deepcar, it was redirected down a track between a disused rail line and the River Don and they were blocked in by a 4x4 vehicle allegedly driven by Mr Hartigan with passenger Mr Lakin allegedly holding a ‘gun’, according to Mr Campbell.

Mr Campbell said Mr Lakin allegedly pointed the ‘gun’ at the van driver and ordered the three men to get out of the vehicle as Mr Rutherford and another unnamed man were allegedly nearby in VW vehicle and the defendants had allegedly planned to take the van and the goods.

However, the delivery driver reversed the Transit van but as Mr Qureshi had already begun to get out of the vehicle he was accidentally run over by the van, according to Mr Campbell, as it fled from the suspected robbers.

Mr Campbell said: “Mr Qureshi had chosen to obey the gunman. He got out of the passenger door and so it was tragically that he was run over by the van that had brought him to that wasteland.

"He received catastrophic injuries from which he was very shortly to die. Given the rough treatment and the circumstances neither occupant of the van was aware of what had just happened.”

The delivery van was then pursued by the 4x4 and the VW, according to Mr Campbell, past the Station House, past a pub and houses to the A6102 towards Sheffield before the defendants gave up the chase and those in the van reported the alleged incident.

Mr Campbell said: “The prosecution case is that were they not to rob the occupants of the van and its contents, Nadeem Qureshi would have been alive today. The would-be robbers did not intend that he should die but his death was a foreseeable consequence of the dangerous criminal activity that they had agreed to embark on.”

Mr Rutherford claimed he had been at the location to receive a delivery of goods, and Mr Lakin and Mr Hartigan claimed they had been ‘off-roading’ at the location, according to Mr Campbell who added that the defence case will also be that both their vehicles had been at the same location by coincidence.

Mr Campbell explained that a legitimate businessman had arranged for the goods to be delivered after there had been difficulties with a previous cancelled arrangement days before involving two deliverymen who had become suspicious about the instructions they had received.

He added that nitrous oxide canisters are used in the catering industry to carbonate drinks or to whip cream and it is also known as ‘laughing gas’ and it can be used as a drug by those seeking a high.

The trial continues.