Jack Carter killer is jailed

Mohammed Nazakat Alam was today sent to prison for 21 months for the manslaughter of Jack Carter in August 2011.

Co-accused, Nisar Shah, formerly of Victoria Road, was given a six month jail term suspended for two years and 120 hours unpaid work for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Leeds Crown Court heard how the attack took place shortly after Mr Carter, 39, and his girlfriend, Melanie Boocock, left a friend’s house in Victoria Road, Thornhill Lees, on Sunday August 28.

Prosecutor Christopher Tehrani said Ms Boocock hurled racist abuse at local resident Junaid Azad as they left the house.

Another man told her to shut up and she threw a punch at him.

Mr Azad stepped in, followed by a group of Asian men who were stood nearby.

One of the group, Alam, then punched Mr Carter who had been watching.

Shah then came out of his house and stood on Mr Carter’s head, but he stayed with Mr Carter until paramedics arrived.

Mr Carter, of Bretton Street, Savile Town, was taken to Dewsbury and District Hospital with serious head injuries and died three days later.

Alam, 25, of Beckett Lane, Dewsbury Moor, was originally charged with murder but that was dropped when he admitted manslaughter last month.

Julian Goose QC, for Alam, said the incident was set against a background of ‘racial hostility’ which was one way.

Andrew Dallas, for 40-year-old Shah, said: “The effect of this incident was such that his whole family had to leave their house, effectively abandon it, because of obvious tensions, and go and live elsewhere.”

Passing sentence, The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC, said Mr Carter’s family had been ‘devastated’ by his death.

He said he accepted that Alam was ‘full of sorrow and remorse’ because of the effect his actions.

He told Shah: “Immediately after your assault, you tried to assist and attend to the man who lay clearly injured on the floor.”