Home Affairs Correspondent
Two teenagers have been convicted of the murder of a 38-year-old Muslim man who was fatally stabbed in the heart during what a court heard was an unprovoked racist attack.
The 17 and 16-year-old boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had denied murdering Kamran Rasool Aman but admitted manslaughter. The jury at Cardiff Crown Court took less than seven hours to return unanimous guilty verdicts. Both will be sentenced on February 20.
The court heard that Aman was sitting in his car on Barry Road in Barry at around 23:50 BST on June 30 when he was noticed by the younger defendant. The 16-year-old, who had been drinking for several hours and had earlier been involved in a fight with the older boy, targeted Aman because of the colour of his skin.
After failing to open the car’s passenger door, he began shouting racist abuse.
Aman, who had earlier delivered food to his wife and four-year-old child, had been driving to Barry Road to drop off groceries for his mother. Prosecutors said he got out of his car to defend himself as the situation escalated.
Several neighbours described being alarmed by shouting in the street and told the court they saw Mr Aman set upon by the two youths. One witness described the assault as “relentless”, likening the attackers’ behaviour to a “pack of animals”.
Jurors were told the 17-year-old briefly went back inside a nearby house where the pair had been drinking, returning around 15 seconds later armed with a knife. A witness later told police they saw him swing the weapon “multiple times”.
Another neighbour, who said she had known Aman for many years, told the court he staggered into her doorway and said: “I think I’ve been stabbed.” She described being shocked by the amount of blood on the floor and said Aman told her: “I can’t breathe.”
Despite Aman bleeding to death, the court heard the teenagers remained intent on fighting, with the younger boy bending over him and continuing to shout racist abuse.
The pair eventually fled, first attempting to wash the knife and their hands with bleach. They were arrested in a nearby street shortly after midnight.
An air ambulance doctor performed emergency open-heart surgery at the scene, but despite those efforts, Aman was pronounced dead at 01:07.
In a statement read to the court, Aman’s wife described him as someone who would “light up a room with his larger-than-life personality”.
“Never once did he let me down. Meeting Kamran will always remain one of the most beautiful things that ever happened to me,” she said.
“He was more than just a husband, he was my best friend and my soulmate.”
She said he was a devoted father “to a child who is now broken and stripped of his love, care, and protection”.
“Her hero, the person she adores and looked up to no longer here. She will grow up without a father’s loving and comforting hands.
“Life for us will never be the same without Kamran. There is a hole in our heart that can never be filled, a pain that will never go away.
“Without Kamran, we are incomplete. The day he died, a part of us died with him.”
Aman’s mother, Shenaz, said the “grief I feel as a mother is unimaginable”.
“It still pains me that I was unable to hold him, be near him, at the time he needed me the most,” she said.
In a further family statement, relatives said his life had been taken in a “brutal senseless racist attack”.
“What makes this pain even deeper is that this horrific attack carried a hateful racial element, leaving us wounded not only by the violence itself but by the fact he was targeted because of who he was.
“No family or loved one should ever bear such a burden.”
Feature photo: Kamran Rasool Aman’s family described him as a “devoted husband” and “loving father” (Credit: South Wales Police)
