A taxi driver was randomly killed because he had picked up a passenger intent on murder, a jury has been told.

Father-of-six Mahmood Ahmed suffered a fatal stab wound to his chest before being struck eight times on the head with a hammer and dumped in a country lane, a court heard.

He died after he had picked up Michael Metcalfe late at night outside the Merry Melon flower shop in Oakworth Road, Keighley, the jury heard.

Metcalfe, 46, went on trial at Bradford Crown Court yesterday accused of murdering the 36-year-old married man, who lived in Gordon Street, Keighley.

Mr Ahmed's body was discovered in a ditch in Slack Lane, Oakworth, by a man walking his dog the morning after he was killed.

Prosecutor Simon Myerson QC said the case against Metcalfe included DNA sampling and other forensic evidence.

He told the jury: "Mr Metcalfe murdered him for no reason other than Mr Ahmed happened to be the taxi driver who answered the request for a taxi.

"Mr Ahmed was murdered by way of a single stab wound to the chest which went through his aorta - the main artery to the heart. After he was stabbed he was struck eight times on the head with a hammer.

"What the prosecution say is that Mr Metcalfe intended to kill someone and it is simply chance that he selected Mr Ahmed as his victim."

Mr Ahmed's Vauxhall Vectra taxi was found abandoned the following day and various items, including his taxi driver's badge with a knife and a hammer, were recovered from the River Worth.

Mr Myerson said that a sample of Metcalfe's DNA had been found in the deceased's blood.

"That blood was in the armpit area of Mr Ahmed's fleece,'' he said.

"The prosecution say the defendant literally had Mr Ahmed's blood on his hands at a time when he put his hands under Mr Ahmed's arms and pulled him out of the taxi. That of course was after Mr Ahmed had been stabbed.

"The chance of that DNA profile belonging to someone other than the defendant and unrelated to the defendant is one in 5.3 million."

At the time of the alleged murder Metcalfe was sharing a flat with his sister in Parkwood Rise, Keighley, and Mr Myerson said fibres found in the taxi exactly matched a fleece belonging to her.

Metcalfe was also wearing a hat when he was caught on CCTV leaving the flats at about 9.40pm on the night of April 24, but on his return at about 11.50pm he was bare-headed.

Mr Myerson said a hat was later recovered from the home of Metcalfe's wife and further fibres found in the taxi match those of the hat.

The police also retrieved a black-handled kitchen knife during the inquiry and Mr Myerson said Metcalfe's sister later identified it as being the one she had kept in her flat as a momento of her late husband.

A brown leather jacket, which witnesses claimed to have seen Metcalfe wearing, was also said to have been recovered from the river.

The jury will also be shown CCTV footage taken outside the Merry Melon around the time the call for the taxi was made and Mr Myerson said six people, including relatives of Metcalfe and a police officer, had identified him as being the man featured in the images.

Metcalfe, who denies murder, was arrested in June last year.

During questioning he said the last time he had been in the River Worth area had been about two weeks before Mr Ahmed's death.

He denied that the leather jacket recovered by the police was his and he also said he did not recognise the knife and hammer which were also found.

Mr Myerson suggested that robbery might have been the motive for the attack because the abandoned taxi had been searched and property including a cash bag had been taken.

But told he jury: "There can be no doubt, submits the prosecution, that whoever stabbed and hit Mr Ahmed intended to kill him and he never had a chance of defending himself.

"The distribution of blood (in the taxi) suggests that he sustained his injuries while he was in the driver's seat before he was removed from the vehicle to where he was found in that ditch."

The trial continues.