Chris Marriott, 46, died when he was struck by Hassan Jhangur’s car as he went to the aid of an injured woman following a fight at a wedding in Sheffield in 2023
A driver used his vehicle ‘as a weapon’ to kill a Good Samaritan who was helping the injured in a wedding brawl, a court heard today. Chris Marriott, 46, had been out walking with his wife and two young sons when he was struck by Hassan Jhangur’s Seat Ibiza. Chris went to the aid of Jhangur’s sister Nafeesa as she lay in the middle of the road in Sheffield. Jhangur, 25, allegedly drove his car deliberately at her, Chris, midwife Alison Norris, who had also gone to help, and his own mother Ambreen, a jury heard. He denies the murder of Mr Marriott and the attempted murder of Hasan Khan, who had married his sister Amaani earlier on Dec 27, 2023. Sheffield crown court heard that Amaani had fallen out with her mother just before the ceremony and none of her family had attended the wedding on the morning of the tragedy.
Jhangurhad driven to the home of the groom and first knocked over his father Riazat Khan. He then hit the group killing Mr Marriott, before he attacked Hasan Khan with a knife, stabbing him multiple times, said Jason Pitter KC, prosecuting.
He told the jury: “Mr Marriott was trying to help. It was that public spirit that brought him unwittingly into the midst of a family dispute that involved the defendant Hassan Jhangur.
“It was their family on one side and a family related by marriage on the other, the family of Mr Khan. It was that family dispute that so tragically led to the death of Chris Marriott and to the serious injuries of a number of others.” The jury had to decide whether the defendant “intended to cause serious harm and to kill” when his vehicle hit the victims. The prosecution say that the car, its wheels still spinning when it came to a halt with its engine running, was used ‘as a weapon’. Following his arrest, Jhangur told police: “That’s why you don’t mess with the Jhangurs”, Mr Pitter added.
In a statement read to the jury, Mr Marriott’s wife of 16 years Bryony told how they had gone for a walk with their sons after returning from her parents’ home when they noticed a young Asian woman who was injured in the middle of the road. Their children were getting upset so he went to help while she took them back home. The last time she saw Chris, he was kneeling down asking the woman ‘if she was ok’. She ‘knew something was wrong’ when she returned to the scene. “An officer explained that a male matching my husband’s description was deceased,” she said. “I came home and was waiting when an officer confirmed my husband had been killed.”
Alison Norris recalled being hit by the car. She told the court: “It was not stopping, I am a driver, and it kept on going at speed. I remember flying through the air backwards and thinking: ‘I must have been hit’.”
Jhangur, of Whiteways Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, denies the murder and manslaughter of Mr Marriott, but has pleaded guilty to causing Mr Marriott’s death by dangerous driving.
His father Mohammed Jhangur, of the same address, denies perverting the course of justice by “hiding the knife used in the midst of his son’s violence.” The trial, expected to take place over two weeks, continues