Man in jail for second killing

Mar 28 2007 By Ron Warrilow, Birmingham Mail

A WALSALL man has been warned he faces a substantial time behind bars after being convicted of manslaughter for the second time.

"This was a serious attack on a frail and vulnerable man who was quite unable to defend himself," Judge John Wait told Avtar Singh Dhooper at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

"The offence is aggravated by the fact you have a previous conviction for a similar offence committed in remarkably similar circumstances."

The judge told Dhooper, 52, of Uplands Road, Willenhall, he was facing a "lengthy, if not indeterminate" prison sentence for the killing.

Dhooper had denied the manslaughter of 64-year-old Gurdev Singh. who was found unconscious on a pavement in Bromley Street, Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, on February 14 last year.

He died 11 days later in New Cross Hospital. but not before he regained consciousness and uttered the words "Tar Tar" - a nickname for Dhooper.

Paul Farrer, prosecuting, said Mr Singh, a diabetic, was an alcoholic who had cirrhosis of the liver.

The blood of the victim was found on a sofa in Dhooper's living room and it had also spattered up on to the ceiling, the jury was told.

Dhooper had further denied wounding Mr Singh and false imprisonment but he was also convicted on those two charges by the jury after they retired to consider the evidence at the end of his trial.

In evidence Dhooper, through an interpreter, maintained he had only been a witness to the attack on Mr Singh.

In 1994 Dhooper was found guilty by a jury at Stafford Crown Court of the manslaughter of Gurdarshan Singh Bilkhu, who died at West Bromwich after being attacked with a pick-axe handle.

Dhooper was cleared by the jury on a charge of murder, but jailed for six years for the manslaughter of 50-year-old Mr Bilkhu.