A son was recorded savagely beating his father to death in a prolonged and repeated attack, a court heard today.

Husnein Amjad, 23, is accused of the murder of his father Amjad Hussain at the family home in Fuller Road, Watford, on October 28, 2021.

Opening the case for the prosecution at St Albans Crown Court, barrister Wayne Cleaver said the fact that Amjad had killed his father was not disputed as he had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in April 2022.

“The prosecution case however is that this is not a case of manslaughter. We say that this was murder. He assaulted his father in such a way that clearly demonstrates that he either intended to kill him or, at the very least, intended to cause him really serious injury. It is from those injuries that he died at the scene.”

The jury was told the police uncovered an audio recording of the attack itself on the victim’s wife’s mobile phone. The defendant’s brother Toqueer made police aware of the recording some months later, and identified three voices: his father, his brother and a cousin, who had not been in the home but speaking via video call.

Mr Cleaver told the jury: “It captures events over about 50 minutes during which time sounds can clearly be heard consistent with his father being hit and kicked, groaning as if semi-conscious and in pain, but the attack still went on…"

He said: “The defendant has abandoned any suggestion that his father’s death was an accident, or was done in self defence. Instead, he now claims that the killing occurred during a loss of self control, which reduces his actions from murder to manslaughter.

“The prosecution do not accept that. We will call evidence to demonstrate that this attack was prolonged, repeated and deliberate. The defendant intended either to kill his father, or at the very least, to inflict really serious injuries, which is precisely what he did.”

The jury heard how the victim had been in Pakistan since August 2020, his return having been delayed by family issues and Covid.

He was collected from Heathrow Airport on October 27, and the family ate together in the evening, with all seeming well.

But the next day Amjad changed his mind about taking some of the children of the family to a trampoline park in Elstree, and asked his sister Kynaat to take them with their mother Shabham Bi instead, saying he had something he wanted to speak to his father about.

After the trampoline session, Kynaat messaged her brother to say they wanted to come home, and he responded by suggesting they take the children to eat at Nando’s. In fact they visited a female cousin, at her home in Watford before visiting a local branch of Curry’s.

While travelling home at about 2.30pm the defendant phoned Kynaat and there was a brief exchange of calls in which she said he sounded scared.

He told her: “Listen, I’ve done something stupid, call the ambulance, I’m gonna hand myself in…”

Asked what he was talking about, he replied: “I’m sorry, it was self defence,” adding, “think of the worst thing I could have possibly done.”

Meanwhile, the cousin had visited the house to see her uncle, arriving at around 5.30pm and failing to get inside. Amjad stuck his head out of a window and said he needed to speak to her, before coming out of the back door and up the side alley.

He said he had been arguing with his father and she needed to come back later, preventing her from calling his mother by grabbing her phone out of her hand.

Kynaat and her mother eventually arrived back at Fuller Road shortly before 6pm, where they met her uncle Ramzan who had called round to see her father.

He managed to gain entrance to the house and let them inside, the front door having been locked. There was no sign of the defendant, and going upstairs to the landing they found Mr Hussain lying motionless on the floor.

“He was visibly injured and at that time was almost dead,” said Mr Cleaver. “There were obvious signs that a violent attack had taken place.”

While the family members were absorbing the chaos, Amjad suddenly returned to the house, run upstairs and immediately came back down. Kynaat screamed at him: “What did you do?”

He said he was sorry and fled the scene in a white car parked outside the house.

Shortly afterwards police and paramedics arrived and tried in vain to resuscitate Mr Hussain, who was pronounced dead at 7.02pm.

Shortly beforehand, Amjad handed himself in at Watford Police Station where he was arrested for attempted murder. He was later transported to Hatfield where he was further arrested for murder at 7.30pm.

He asked officers whether his father died at the scene or afterwards, and the prosecutor  said he clearly knew he had beaten him so severely as to leave him for dead.

His argument of self defence was part of a deception, Mr Cleaver claimed, as there was no evidence of any injuries, and he made no comment to explain the situation in subsequent police interviews.

Pathologist Dr Matthew Ceika carried out the post mortem examination which revealed multiple injuries on his head, abdomen and limbs, and severe internal injuries including lacerated lungs and liver and trauma to the brain.

He certified the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head, chest and abdomen.

During the course of the police investigation officers found evidence suggesting that after killing his father shortly after his mother and sister left the house, Amjad changed out of his bloody clothes and stashed them, visited a local shop to purchase a phone charger, packed a holdall of essential items and gave it to a friend, and only then alerted his sister that something dreadful had happened.

The trial continues.