Two men have been found guilty of the murder of Paul Ackroyd who was attacked at a flat in Bradford and dragged dying into the street.

Alex Bates, 19, of Eastfield Gardens, Holme Wood, Bradford, and Rashpal Singh Gill, 40, of Leeds Road, Bradford, were convicted by the jury this morning after a trial lasting more than four weeks.

Mohammed Jawaid Khan, 53, of Leylands Lane, Heaton, Bradford, was cleared of murder but found guilty of assisting an offender.

Kirsty Rushworth, 32, of Walker Avenue, Lidget Green, Bradford, was acquitted of assisting an offender. She was on bail and walked free from the dock after the verdict was returned.

The verdicts were all unanimous and came after the jurors had been deliberating since last Friday for almost 19 hours.

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Bates and Khan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, and Gill admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine, before the trial started.

Mr Ackroyd, 37, known as Acky, was murdered in the early hours of February 23, 2019.

Prosecutor Peter Moulson QC told Bradford Crown Court he was attacked in a flat at 10 Jinnah Court, Manningham, and dragged out into the street while he was dying.

The jury heard there were allegations of the supply of Class A drugs from the flat from the summer of 2018 until the time of Mr Ackroyd’s death.

Examination of the address revealed a hammer behind a curtain and wheel braces, a chisel and a skewer. There were no scientific findings to show they were used in the assault, the jury was told.

“It might be that the weapon or weapons used to assault Mr Ackroyd were disposed of by one or more of the defendants before the police arrived at 10 Jinnah Court,” Mr Moul-son said.

Mr Ackroyd’s wallet, found near to his body outside the flat, was empty of cash and his pockets had been searched.

He had sustained multiple blunt force impacts to the head, including a fracture of the left temporal bone.