A TEENAGER has pleaded guilty to violent disorder over the death of a Sheffield student who died after weeks of fighting between Bengali and Somali youths.

Abdulla Awil Mohammed, aged 18, died in March after a car ploughed into him and fellow Somali friends on Coleridge Road, Darnall.

The Sheffield Hallam University engineering student, from Burngreave, was struck on the head by a road sign knocked over by the car, and died after suffering an eight-centimetre gash across his forehead.

Car passenger Nizamul Hoque, 19, of Willow Drive, Darnall, yesterday pleaded guilty to violent disorder, on the second day of a trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Treacy, ordered the jury to find Hoque not guilty of the more serious charge of manslaughter after the prosecution offered no more evidence against him.

But the trial will continue against his co-accused, fellow passenger Mohammed Kahar, 19, of Swarcliffe Road, Darnall, who denies manslaughter.

The two men – both members of the Bengali community – were passengers in a red Kia Picanto driven by Aminur Rahman, 20.

The Sheffield Crown Court jury heard the car crossed from one side of Coleridge Road to the other, before mounting the pavement and speeding nine metres towards a group of Somali teenagers.

The car hit three of them before crashing into the sign which fell on Abdulla.

Among the group was 19-year-old Abdi Mohammed, a former Tapton School sixth form pupil who was due to start an accounting degree at York University.

The jury was played a video recording of a police interview with Abdi on March 18, the morning after Abdulla died.

Abdi, recalling the incident, said: “A red car came straight at us. It was going at least 40 miles per hour.

“It hit me first in my kneecap and sent me flying. That’s when I lost consciousness.

“The next thing I knew was being dragged along by another lad, who put me in a taxi to take me home.”

Abdi, who was crying in the video, said it was only later that night, after he had been taken to hospital and discharged, that he found out Abdulla had died.

“I went to the same primary and secondary school as him,” he said. “We were at Pye Bank Primary and Park Wood High together before I went to Tapton.

“He was only in the first year at university. He had prospects, a bright future ahead of him.

“He was one of my best mates. He was just a cool guy, a top man.”

* Nizamul Hoque will be sentenced for violent disorder later this month. The trial into the case of Mohammed Kahar continues.

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Sheffield Telegraph

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