David Lees

David Lees was deliberately run over outside a petrol station on Middleton Road, Prestwich after he and his friends had had an argument with some Asian men from Longsight, Manchester.

In 2016 two people were arrested, although not trial details or convictions are known.

After the argument, a man in a hooded top was seen to get into a silver Vauxhall Vectra car, registration number T313 NCR, which he then accelerated up to 60-70mph and drove into David Lees. The car hit David Lees who was thrown about 30 feet through the air.

He suffered head injuries and was taken to the North Manchester General Hospital where he died.

The Vauxhall Vectra was then said to have been driven to the gates of Heaton Park on Middleton Road where the driver talked to other men and was then driven off towards south Manchester.

When the police carried out their investigation they said that they had come up against a wall of silence.

David Lees had been out with friends to the Cheers bar in Middleton Road for a friend’s birthday celebration. At about 11.30pm he had gone to the BP garage near the bar to buy some chewing gum. Whilst there he and his friends got into a row with some Asian men. David Lees and his friends were said to be squaring up to the Asians who were swinging their belts about.

A witness said that David Lees fell over and then got up and hit one of the Asians and it was said then that the Asians then got into their cars. The witness said that there were three cars and that they were deliberately driving around the road as though trying to run people over. It was described as chaotic and at one point David Lees was stood in the road and a friend shouted a warning to him but he was hit by a car that threw him 40ft through the air.

A man said that he had seen all three cars before as well as the Asians and said that he thought that they were using the garage as a base to park up and deal drugs and that the people in the bar didn't like it because they were outsiders.

The police said that they were treating the incident as a racial incident saying that the confrontation had been racially motivated although noted that the murder itself was not racially motivated.

It was said that there had been about 20 people in the cars on the forecourt of the garage at around 1am.