Sarah Kasseum is one of six people accused of murdering Paul Foster, who died during a drugs ‘taxing’
Sarah Kasseum is accused of the murder of Paul Foster(Image: Facebook)
A man accused of murder allegedly threatened to shoot his co-defendant’s children after she “grassed” on him in her evidence, a court has heard. Paul Foster, who was known as “Pablo”, died aged 47 after suffering a single stab wound to the back during a “taxing” on Muirhead Avenue in West Derby.
His assailants were said to have been “tooled up” with a knife and an imitation firearm at the time of the robbery, stealing drugs and a quantity of cash from the address before fleeing. Four men and a woman, Elsadig Abrahim, Zayd Alasaly, Dylan Blundell, Michael Fields and Sarah Kasseum are currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of his murder.
Kasseum continued giving her evidence to the jury this afternoon, Monday. She previously told the court last week that she had been smoking crack cocaine in a car outside the apartment at the time of the stabbing, after which Fields allegedly told her Alasaly had “smacked up” Mr Fields.
Later, Kasseum claimed Blundell had told her he had seen Fields “passing a knife” to Alasaly. However, she denies having prior knowledge of any planned robbery and maintained she had not been aware that others who travelled to the scene in the same car had been armed with weapons.
Under questioning from Abrahim’s counsel Mark Rhind KC today, Kasseum also claimed that she did not see the other occupants of the car wearing balaclavas or masks and maintained she had not handed his client a scarf prior to their entry to the property.
Kasseum was then cross-examined by Alasaly’s barrister Tim Storrie KC, who put to her that she was “in a powerful position to solve a lot of the questions that were being asked by the police” and “could have solved the mystery of Pablo’s death”. Having only given her account for the first time from the witness box, she agreed: “I could have told them a lot more earlier, yeah.”
Mr Storrie went on to accuse Kasseum of “calculating what would be best for her”, to which she replied: “Well, yeah. It was more my family and that, why I didn’t speak up to the police, over the kids and that.”
Having referred to “grassing” and “consequences” during her evidence on Thursday, Kasseum added: “I didn’t name anyone who was in the car because I was scared for my kids and my family. I didn’t want to say anything.”
Asked whether her “decision helped to work out whether she was an honest woman or not”, Kasseum responded: “Well, no. It doesn’t make me look like an honest woman, does it? I had no choice at the time.”
Mr Storrie subsequently accused Kasseum and Blundell of “finding themselves close in the course of the case” and said that this was “the reason she decided to accuse Zayd Alasaly, who she knew was not there”. But she replied: “No, it’s not.”
Ben Myers KC then asked questions of Kasseum on behalf of Blundell, at which she refuted the two had “colluded” in their accounts. The defence silk put to her: “You knew what was happening, and you were a crucial part of it. This was your event and Mr Fields’, wasn’t it?”
However, Kasseum denied these allegations. When it was put to her that “everybody in the car had a part to play in this robbery”, she added: “I didn’t know there was any robbery.”
Kasseum also denied having “threated Dylan to keep his mouth shut” and said that she was not aware of Fields or Alasaly “trying to intimidate him”. But she did report that she had been subject to threats by “Mick and Ziggy”, with Mr Myers saying that this had come “during the hearing, during a gap in your evidence at the end of last week”.
When Kasseum nodded, Blundell’s barrister continued: “That was to you, after the evidence you gave about what you say Dylan has said and what you say Mick has said. Did Mick say ‘seriously Sarah?’, something like that? And you said, ‘seriously what’?. Did he say ‘watch your kids’? What did Mr Alasaly say?”
At this, Kasseum responded “he was going to shoot them”. When Mr Myers asked whether this was “because she had spoken out”, she then replied: “Yeah.”
The jury of six men and six women previously heard during the prosecution’s opening earlier this month that Mr Foster dealt drugs from the home of a now deceased woman named Lyndzi McCowan on Muirhead Avenue. Fields was said to have driven his four co-defendants to this address in his black Kia Ceed car shortly after after 1.30am on October 15 2024.
David McLachlan KC, appearing for the crown, said: “They were not going to Muirhead Avenue for a little drive on a Tuesday morning in the early hours.
“The prosecution say that they were in the car for a purpose, and it was not a good purpose. The purpose was to rob Paul Foster of his money and his drugs in what is known commonly as taxing, and they went tooled up. By that, we mean that they were armed with a knife and an imitation firearm.”
Upon their arrival, Kasseum was said to have been “deployed to gain entry” to the address using the intercom, having apparently been “in the know” and “close enough to Paul Foster to know where he was and close enough to know what he did”. Mr McLachlan told the court: “Lyndzi McCowan buzzed her in. It did not work and, in fact, nobody arrived at the flat, so Lyndzi McCowan walked down to speak to the girl, Sarah Kasseum, who had been buzzed in.
“As she made her way downstairs, she was confronted by three males running at her. They were dressed in black. She did not see the girl that she had seen from the window. Lyndzi McCowan ran back into the flat, no doubt as fast as she could, and tried to shut the door against the males that were trying to barge in. She was screaming. She realised that the males were there to rob Paul Foster.”
These men were heard to say “where is he?”, “where’s the bits?” and “where’s the money?” and were said to be armed with “what appeared to be a gun”. Mr McLachlan added: “During that confrontation, Paul Foster was fatally stabbed in the back.
“What did they do? Well, they legged it. They fled the scene. They took cash, stolen from the flat. They were described as wearing all black clothing and balaclavas. A bloodstained piece of black metal, which was the plastic slide component of an air pistol, was recovered from inside 40A Muirhead Avenue. The knife was never recovered.
“It is the prosecution case that Paul Foster’s death was a direct consequence of a drug taxing where he was living and dealing drugs. It is the prosecution case that Michael Fields drove the offenders to the scene, that Sarah Kasseum was present at the scene and acted as a decoy by posing as someone who intended to purchase drugs from Paul Foster.
“But she was there for an entirely different purpose, that being to facilitate access to the flat for the purpose of the taxing that was to take place. Thereafter, the males went in, Michael Fields, Elsadig Abrahim, Zayd Alasaly and Dylan Blundell. They went in to do their business armed with weapons, a knife and an imitation firearm.
“The prosecution case is that all five defendants went to 40A Muirhead Avenue to rob Paul Foster of his drugs and money. They went mob handed. They were armed with a knife and an imitation firearm. The prosecution case is that they shared a common purpose, and that common purpose was, without a doubt, to rob Paul Foster and, if it came to it, and, sadly, it did, to commit murder.
“Was the stabbing of Paul Foster within the scope of a joint enterprise if the need arose? That will be a question that you will grapple with. The prosecution case is that it obviously was, and it will be necessary for you to consider, individually, what the intentions of each of the defendants was in this case.
“The prosecution case is that, whilst the defendants went to rob Paul Foster, they did so in the knowledge that, if it got on top, they could resort to using the weapons that they had, that were in their joint possession, to wound or to inflict grievous bodily harm with intent. The knife was not a toy, members of the jury.”
Abrahim, aged 61 and of Croxteth Road in Toxteth, 23-year-old Alasaly, of Corinto Street in Toxteth, 26-year-old Blundell, of Corsewall Street in Wavertree, 41-year-old Kasseum, of Lower Breck Road in Anfield, and 50-year-old Fields, of no fixed address, all deny murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place. Abrahim, Alasaly and Kasseum have also pleaded not guilty to robbery and carrying an imitation firearm with intent to commit an offence.
Blundell and Fields, however, admit these two counts, with the latter having similarly pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The trial, before Judge Simon Medland KC, continues.