Richard Barraclough and Matthew Harding secure the acquittal of Brendan Paradzai of murder

December 5, 2023

On 30th November the jury in Leeds Crown Court returned verdicts in the case of Belinga, Mbwasse, Ogie and Paradzai.  Richard Barraclough KC instructed by Zia Yasin of Messrs Cooper Hall led Matthew Harding for the defence of Paradzai.

It was alleged that following a dispute at a party between Belinga and someone called TM, Belinga recruited the others to return to the party in order to take revenge on TM. The wrong person was attacked with long knives and killed in front of a number of teenagers. Paradzai drove them to the scene but denied that he knew that the others would use knives to kill or inflict serious harm. He was acquitted of murder and convicted of manslaughter. The others were all convicted of murder.