Anuj Bidve shooting: judge begins summing up in murder trial

A judge has begun summing up in the murder trial over the shooting of an Indian postgraduate student on a Salford street in the early hours of Boxing Day. Anuj Bidve, 23, was shot as he walked to the Boxing Day sales in Manchester city centre with a group of friends. Kiaran Stapleton, 21, from Ordsall, Salford, denies murder and has admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The prosecution rejected the plea and took the case to trial at Manchester crown court. The judge, Mr Justice Timothy King, told the jury the facts of Bidve's death were heartbreaking. Equally, jurors may have sympathy towards the defendant, he said. . But it was important they carried out a dispassionate assessment of the evidence. He said Stapleton admitted unlawfully killing Bidve, but the question the jury had to resolve was whether he had intended to kill or cause him real, serious harm. The prosecution case was that the defendant was in control of his actions at the time of the shooting, there was no loss of control and he was not angry or upset, the judge said. He said the defence argued this was "too simplistic". Prior to the shooting Stapleton had drunk five or six bottles of Smirnoff Ice. "Although he himself was not affected by this and was certainly not drunk … you must bear this in mind." The judge said part of Stapleton's defence relied on the facts that the gun belonged to his friend Ryan Holden, that Holden handed it to him unexpectedly moments before the shooting, and that Stapleton did not know or believe the gun was loaded. "The defendant failed to mention any of these matters during police interviews. For the most part, he said: 'No comment'. He never mentioned these things and this failure may count against him," the judge said. He said the prosecution argued that the defendant told several lies. When he was arrested and questioned, he denied any involvement in Bidve's killing. In a police interview he lied about a teardrop tattoo and falsely suggested it had been done some weeks before the killing, the judge said. The defence argued the lies were "part and parcel of the recognised medical condition", he said. The judge will resume his summing up on Wednesday before the jury retires to consider its verdict.