Pickup truck driven erratically, murder trial told

A 4x4 pickup truck was being driven erratically before several "bangs and crashes" could be heard, a witness has told a murder trial.

Arlind Xhokola, 26, was found with fatal rib and spine injuries on a cycle path in Harlow, Essex, on 29 March.

Prosecutors have accused Jeremy Heath, 51, of Ladyshot in Harlow, of pinning him against a tree with the Mitsubishi truck while the defendant and two others were looking for crack cocaine.

A witness told jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court that she was getting her daughter into her car when she heard the roaring sound from an engine.

"The vehicle which I saw driving erratically was a silver 4x4 pickup truck," she said.

"The sound was as if someone was standing on the exhaust engine."

She said the pickup truck mounted the pavement outside a tattoo shop, before later hearing "several bangs and crashes which sounded like cars hitting each other".

Prosecutors say Heath had already robbed a man of his car at knifepoint earlier that day.

Heath abandoned the car, prosecutors said, and he began searching Harlow for drugs, with friends Joe Jones and Matthew Arnold.

Prosecutor Andrew Jackson has said the trio came across Xhokola shortly before 17:30 GMT, and a chase began.

Acting Sgt Luke Killen was on patrol in Harlow when the force received reports of the car robbery.

The officer said a member of the public told him: "He's been hit, I think he's bleeding out, he's behind you."

He said he saw a crowd of people around a man lying against a tree on the cycle path off Momples Road. The victim had a "heavy open wound on his left shoulder".

There was a broken white bollard near the victim, Killen added. He gave the victim first aid but he was not breathing.

Heath denies murder, robbery, perverting the course of justice and possession of a knife.

Jones, 38, of Great Plumtree, Harlow, has pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice and possession of a knife.

Arnold, 40, of Little Pynchons, Harlow, has denied perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.

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