A taxi-driver was lured to a dark country lane where he was brutally stabbed in the chest by a customer turned killer.

How Mohammed Was Murdered

The father-of-five Mohammed Istakhar did manage to jump out of his cab and run for his life in darkness. But 20-year-old Oliver Pugh hunted him down and stabbed him in the arm and thigh as the helpless driver begged for his life.

He then collapsed and died ‘in his own pool of blood’.

Wife Was Worried

Having not returned home at his usual time – 7am, his wife Nasira Mughal phoned him 100 times not knowing her husband was already dead.

A stranger answered his phone and she and her son managed to track down where he had gone when a security guard at a nearby football ground showed them CCTV.

They arrived to find the road sealed off and a heavy police presence. The pair then watched on in horror as they saw Mohammed’s body be placed into a bag.

After the horrific murder, Pugh and his assailant, Luca De-Fazio, 19, went on a joy-ride in Mohammed’s taxi.

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They removed the number plates and taxi livery, crashed into a farmer’s back fence, before fleeing the scene and disposing of the two weapons.

Court Ruling

He (Pugh) was sentenced to life with a minimum of 27 years.

Luca De-Fazio, 19, of no fixed address, was cleared of murder, but pleaded guilty to possession of a knife and sentenced to one month.