Teenager handed seven-year sentence after Bury stabbing

Mohammed Afzal, known to his loved ones as Isa, died after a violent incident outside Power League on Market Street, Bury, on August 1 last year.

A trial at Manchester Crown Court in March found Abbas Hussain, 19, Mohammed Rayhan, also 19, and Biryan Ak, 20, all not guilty of murdering Mr Afzal.

But Hussain was convicted of manslaughter for his part in Mr Afzal’s death.

During the trial, the three men had argued that they were defending themselves from Mr Afzal after he and another man emerged from a car.

When interviewed by police after his arrest, Hussain did not comment but gave a prepared statement.

His statement said that Mr Afzal had launched a violent attack on him, but accepted he had stabbed the 19-year-old several times.

At the opening of the trial, Mr Hamilton said that Mr Afzal and his friends had followed a grey Corsa to the Power League complex to target their car.

Mr Hamilton said that on arriving at the Power League, Mr Afzal then got out of his car and approached it with a baseball bat in his hand and opened the door.

This then started the incident that ended with Mr Afzal being fatally stabbed with a blade described as a “Call of Duty” style knife.

Mr Ak, of Norman Grove, Longsight, was found not guilty of murder, while Mr Rayhan, of Chauncy Road, Failsworth, was acquitted of murder and possession of an offensive weapon.

Hussain, formerly of Bolton and of Windsor Crescent, Prestwich, was found not guilty of murder but convicted of manslaughter and of possession of a bladed article.

Hussain was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Friday, April 24.

Mr Nasser Afzal, father of Mohammed Afzal, read a victim’s personal statement aloud to the court in which he described the day of August 1, 2025, as “a day that lives in the depths of my memory uninvited and impossible to escape.”

He said: “No parent should ever have to imagine outliving a child.”

The statement went on to say: “He had a whole future ahead of him with big goals, goals that were never just about himself but about lifting everyone he loved.

“That was who Isa was. Selfless, thoughtful, full of heart.

“That future has now been stolen. Dreams left unfulfilled. Goals that will now never be achieved. A life that will never be lived.”

Mr Afzal said that he buried himself in work “to escape the torment” of remembering his son and that it felt “wrong to smile”.

He went on to say his son had “a pure, generous heart” and “could not tolerate people feeling alone or bullied.”

Addressing the court, he said: “Nothing can undo what has been done, but I ask the court, from one father’s broken heart, to try to understand the lifelong impact this had had on our family.”

He said his family had been left “with a lifetime of grief” that they “will never recover from”.

A second victim personal statement was read aloud to the court by the prosecution from Mohammed Afzal’s cousin, Sana Baber.

The statement described him as “full of love and life” and said that “life feels unbearably unfair”.

It went on to say: “I wanted us to achieve our dreams together.”

It concluded: “If love alone could have saved you, I promise Isa, you would have lived forever.”

The court heard Mohammed Afzal was stabbed seven times within four seconds, one of these being in his back.

Sentencing Hussain, The Honourable Mr Justice Lavender said: “They (Mohammed Afzal’s family) have spoken movingly of the profound loss that you have caused.”

He went on to say: “You stabbed him not once but seven times, with two of the wounds inflicted being capable of killing him.”

He said Hussain disposed of his clothes, the knife, and his phone.

He told the court only a custodial sentence would be justified and sentenced Hussain to seven years in a young offender’s institution, with a 12-month concurrent sentence for possession of a bladed article.

When the sentence was read aloud in court, Mohammed Afzal’s family left the courtroom.