recruitment company and had previously attended the city's Deacon's School. He was an unofficial police informer and the court was told he thought of himself as a gangster and had a "fantasy for knives". Nazir, 22, was close friends with Awan. He was married in Kashmir the month prior to the murder and had a son. He was educated at Bretton Woods School, had worked in a factory and later in a takeaway restaurant with Mahrad, whom he had known since childhood. Ali, 25, had also attended Bretton Woods School and was also married, although his wife left him during the trial. He was given a reference at the trial by the Deputy Mayor of Peterborough, Raja Akhtar, and Labour Party councillor Mohammed Choudhary, with Akhtar stating he had "known him to be caring and responsible". Mahrad, 21, owned a takeaway restaurant business in King's Lynn. During the six-week trial, transcripts of covert police recordings of the suspects discussing the attack were submitted as evidence. These conversations took place in police vehicles when the suspects were arrested and were translated from Punjabi. Nazir was heard describing Parker's death as a "bloodbath", and how the third blow from the knife had split the whole of his neck open. Awan and Nazir were both heard discussing the statements they had given to police and the plan they had "made up". The court was also told of an exchange between Awan and an inmate at Bedford Prison, in which Awan described the killing of Parker in lurid detail. Contents of a letter written by Mahrad were also presented in which he stated he would "pray to Allah for forgiveness". The jury heard how the murder weapons had been found in a shed at Nazir's house along with two bags of bloodied clothes. DNA and fingerprints belonging to Nazir was found on the hunting knife and Parker's blood was found on both the hammer and knife. His blood was also found on the clothes of two of the accused, along with Nazir and Mahrad's DNA, and a pathologist told how marks on Parker's body matched the hammer found in Nazir's shed. Three balaclavas were also recovered from the property, again containing traces of Parker's blood. Nazir's younger brother Wyed told the court he had seen his brother cleaning the murder weapon on the night of the killing and witnessed all four defendants with blood