A MAN killed after a botched drug deal was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, a jury heard today.

As the trial of murder accused Zacharious Clayton, 19, Kendel Joseph, 19, Christopher Simmonds, 28, and an 18-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons, entered its final week, prosecutor Nigel Lickley said Charles Roger Millar, 44, died after being stabbed in the back while he was fleeing a gang out for revenge.

He said Mr Millar was among a group present at a pre-arranged drug deal along with Damian Lynch, who had decided to rob drug dealer Shelton Sibanda when he arrived.

Sibanda, 19, who has already pleaded guilty to murder, ran back to a house in Rose Street after the ambush and told his friends, before grabbing his knife and setting out to track the group down, Mr Lickley said.

Mr Millar, of East Street, suffered five stab wounds to his back and lower limbs during the attack in Swindon at around 1.30am on June 6 last year and died shortly after in hospital.

Mr Lickley told Bristol Crown Court: “Sibanda had been roughed up and the way to respond in that nasty world is to respond with violence, make a mark and make it known you are not going to be messed with.

“Mr Millar had nothing to do with the assault on Sibanda, he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught. He was perhaps the slowest as far as the CCTV shows.

“He even said ‘it’s nothing to do with me mate’ and he was right. That did not save him.”

Prosecutors said the four men who followed Sibanda out of the flat were aware there was an intention to cause harm.

“They went together for support, to hunt down and to punish and from that moment on were operating with a joint purpose,” Mr Lickley said.

Clayton, of Dean Street, Joseph, of Pioneer Road and Simmonds, of Mundania Road, London and the 18-year-old, of Swindon, each deny a single charge of murder.

The trial continues.