A woman whose boyfriend died in a street fight joked with his alleged killer that her student partner ‘fell like Deontay Wilder‘.
Simran Nijher, 22, gave evidence as Liverpool Crown Court heard about laughing texts she exchanged with boxer Elvis Duruaku, 24 while her boyfriend Hassan Haadi, 22 was in a coma.
Prosecutors say Duruaku murdered student Hassan Haadi during a fight by knocking him out, then stomping on his head.
Simran Nijher, 22, told Liverpool Crown Court about laughing texts she exchanged with boxer Elvis Duruaku
They say the fight in Everton was sparked when Duruaku told Mr Haadi’s girlfriend, Simran Nijher, that Mr Haadi was cheating on her.
Mr Haadi was put in a coma, from which he never woke up.
Judge Denis Watson, QC, asked her to clarify what was in her mind when she sent the text.
She replied: ‘From my perspective I thought he was fine, and that’s why I sent it.’
During a conversation with Duruaku Ms Nijher is said to have sent ‘LMAO’ and ‘it’s just so funny’.
When asked what she was laughing at she said: ‘I just found the whole situation laughable.
‘If you put Hassan and Elvis together, Hassan is a lot smaller height, a lot smaller stature, so I just thought it was kind of ridiculous he even wanted to try and fight him.’
One of Duruaku’s texts read : ‘So sorry for his dad, so that’s why I hope he wakes with good health, but hopefully now he can stop putting my name in his mouth for no apparent reason. Going to try and squash it when he wakes, if not we can go to school again.’
Prosecutors say Elvis Duruaku (pictured) murdered student Hassan Haadi during a fight
Mr Storrie said: ‘And then you responded ‘man fell like Deontay Wilder’.
Ms Nijher agreed that Deontay Wilder was a boxer who got ‘knocked out cold’ and said her text was ‘just a daft thing’.
She told the jury: ‘I said it because I was really p***ed off by the whole situation, p***ed off that I had been mugged off and I didn’t really care how Hassan was feeling about everything then, I was just p***ed off.’
Under questioning by Tim Storrie, QC, prosecuting, the student said Mr Haadi had grown to dislike Duruaku because of his friendship with her.
She said Duruaku texted her on March 21 this year, saying a woman called Gloria had been ‘sleeping with Hassan or in a relationship with him’.
Ms Nijher, 22, said she was ’embarrassed’ but ‘didn’t really believe it’, so texted Mr Haadi, who said ‘everyone is lying’ and kept ringing her to deny it.
She said Mr Haadi was ‘really angry’, called Duruaku a ‘f****t’ and said he was going to ‘beat him up’.
She said she later returned a missed call from Duruaku, who was ‘quite panicked’, said there had been a fight, and that he didn’t know if Mr Haadi was OK.
Ms Nijher said she kept calling Mr Haadi but didn’t receive an answer, so rang his friends, who said he was fine but that they had rung an ambulance to check.
She said she didn’t know ‘exactly’ whether he was in a coma, before saying she ‘felt like’ she knew he was, but there was ‘misinformation’ going around.
She added: ‘I was actually unsure until the day he passed away. Everyone was saying conflicting things.’
Ms Nijher joked that ‘man fell like Deontay Wilder’ while her boyfriend Hassan was in a coma. Above, Wilder (right) is stopped by Tyson Fury in November 2019
‘So after that day we all thought Hassan was fine and he was just ignoring me.’
‘I felt like he was just ignoring me and didn’t want to talk to me, and if he doesn’t want to talk to me, he will probably start talking to another girl. Basically I just felt mugged off.’
Mr Storrie said she replied ‘LOL’ to another message and asked what she meant by texting: ‘My man gonna be with the angels.’
Ms Nijher said: ‘I was just making a joke then, it’s not a very nice joke.’
‘Because Hassan died, passed away, so everything I said, nothing should have been said.’
Ms Nijher text Duruaku ‘I don’t even care what happens to him you know’ and Duruaku replied ‘hope he learns, if not class begins again, lecture two starts’.
She said Duruaku wasn’t the sort of person to get in trouble and she didn’t think he encouraged the fight, stating: ‘He avoids confrontation, he doesn’t like to fight or argue with people.’
Duruaku texted her on April 6 saying ‘I don’t know if I can live with another man’s death’, she said ‘nah you can’, and added: ‘I know you care for people deeply, even the bad ones.’
Questioned again by Mr Storrie, she said she was inclined to believe Duruaku’s account of the fight, because ‘he doesn’t lie’.
She said: ‘I don’t think he cared about going to prison, I think it was more that he killed someone and he couldn’t live with it.’
Duruaku denies murder and manslaughter.