Murder accused insists act was 'in self defence'

TAHLA REDWAN FEARED VICTIM WOULD KILL HIM

- By CARL EVE

A YOUNG man with no previous convictions told a court that when he tried to get out of selling class A drugs in Plymouth was told he owed £2,000 and feared his parents would be targeted.

Tahla Redwan, 20, is accused of murdering 36-year-old father-of-two Shane Sweet on November 4 last year in Cambridge Road.

Plymouth Crown Court heard that Redwan, of Hackney in London, did not deny stabbing Mr Sweet with a kitchen knife, but yesterday took to the witness box to insist that he did so in self defence.

Redwan explained that his Bangladeshi mother was "cast out" by her family as she married his Pakistani father - who then left the family when he was four years old.

She then met another man who became Redwan's stepdad and helped bring him up.

He claimed he was a "good boy" at school and did not get into any trouble. He got jobs while he was still at school and when he left school at 16 he went to work through a recruitment agency, but then returned to college to start studying A levels.

He said he hoped to become a PE teacher but found other students at his college were only there "chilling".

He said he left college in January 2022 and went on to acquire a SIA (Security Industry Authority) badge and got a job as security guard at a Co-operative shop in Bethnal Green.

However, he admitted "life was very depressing," adding that he was not getting along well with "anyone at the time" and was dismayed that his friends forgot his 20th birthday.

He said he had decided to cut ties with all his former friends and found a new group, in the area of the local estate and park in the Stratford area of London, all of whom were aged around 25 and 26.