A MAN has told a jury he had “nothing to do” with a violent attack that saw his nephew “almost kicked to death” on a quiet Bradford cul-de-sac.

Residents on Hollybank Gardens in Great Horton reported hearing a car crash and shots fired on the evening of October 3 last year.

Bradford Crown Court has heard from prosecutor David Brooke that a dispute between the leaders of two rival groups led to the violent confrontation, in which a shotgun was fired at a car and the alleged gunman attacked with a lump hammer and a knife.

Mohammed Waris, 22, of Northside Terrace, Lidget Green, Tariq Adalat, 35, of Northside Terrace, Lidget Green, and Dhaanish Akmal, 19, of Aberdeen Terrace, Lidget Green, each face three charges of conspiracy to have in their possession a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, conspiracy to possess a firearm without a firearms certificate, and conspiracy to handle stolen goods.

Ajaz Saddiq, 38, of Hollybank Gardens, Great Horton, Shahid Saddiq, 35, of Waverley Road, Great Horton, and Nazim Hussain, 39, of Fairbank Road, Girlington, are charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding Waris with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.

The court has been told that Ajaz and Shahid Saddiq are brothers, and that Hussain is their cousin. Adalat is a cousin of Hussain, and uncle to Waris.

The jury heard yesterday that Waris and Akmal would not be offering any evidence in their respective defences.

Mark Tomassi, for Adalat, said to his client: “It is alleged that you, Mr Waris, and Mr Akmal planned that if the situation arose, a gun would be used to endanger life.”

Asked whether he had ever touched or seen the gun allegedly used in the attack, Adalat said: “No I haven’t.”

He told the jury that he had not been aware of the incident until receiving a phone call telling him “something unpleasant” had happened to Waris.

When asked by Mr Tomassi: “Were you there when Mr Waris was nearly kicked to death?”, he replied: “No sir. I had nothing to do with the events of that evening at all.”

Adalat told the jury he had been involved in a car crash on Beckside Road with Ajaz Saddiq earlier on the day of the incident, in which Saddiq claimed his car was “rammed” and he was attacked by two men, said to be Adalat and Waris, with a machete and baseball bat.

Adalat said it was Ajaz Saddiq who had actually initiated the “unprovoked” assault, punching him up to five times in the face and threatening to kill him.

He said that in retaliation, he picked up a piece of wood and ran after his relative until he got back in his car.

When Simon Kealey QC, for Ajaz Saddiq, asked Adalat where he was around the time of the Hollybank Gardens attack, he said he had been “driving around the area on my own”, before meeting up with a friend in the Manningham Lane area.

Asked why he had not told those details to police, Adalat said he was upset by the condition of Waris in hospital.

“My nephew was critical, my head was all over the place.”

Mr Kealey said to him: “I suggest you were the driver of a Range Rover driving up to Hollybank Gardens that evening”, to which Adalat replied: “No, I wasn’t.”

The trial continues.