A white father-of-seven stabbed to death in the street by his Asian neighbour was a personal friend of the leader of the far-Right British National Party, a murder trial was told today.

One passer-by described seeing a “river of blood” flowing from the body of Keith Brown, 53, who was left dying face-down on the pavement, with his feet near the gutter outside his home, after being stabbed by his next-door neighbour Habib Khan.

Although many Asians could be seen standing in front of the Khans’ grand house in the immediate aftermath of the stabbing, nobody appeared to be tending Mr Brown, according to another witness.

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, was a mourner at Mr Brown’s funeral. The mother of the dead man’s children, Julia Barker, told a jury: “It was the family who invited him because Keith knew him as a friend as well as what he was.”

She accepted that Mr Brown had become interested in politics and that he and his shaven-headed eldest son Ashley Barker, 20, went out leafleting for the BNP in their native Stoke-on-Trent.

Mrs Barker expressed her strong resentment that the victim and his family were being portrayed as responsible for years of threats, abuse and violence towards their Asian neighbours. She insisted it was the Khans who had threatened the white family.

Mr Khan, 50, and Mr Brown had once worked for the same employer and the pair even shook hands when the Asian man bought two houses close to Mr Brown’s home a few years ago, Mrs Barker said.

Bad feeling arose after Mr Khan demolished the houses and turned the plot into a building site so he could create a large, smart new home.

Mr Khan’s barrister Simon Drew, cross-examining, said: “Keith was vile towards the entire Khan family whenever they came out. He was abusive, racially abusive, frequently. He didn’t like the house. He didn’t like the Khans. He didn’t like the fact they were Asian.

“He did everything he possibly could to be difficult and obstructive towards them. Quite prepared to resort to violence against them if the mood took him.”

Mrs Barker, who was allowed to give her evidence shielded from view behind a heavy curtain, said: “He has nothing against Asians. He spoke to Asians up the road.

“People forget when Ashley was threatened to be burnt and his body would never be found; Keith \[was\] threatened to be killed by Mr Khan. That’s what you seem to forget. It’s like we are the guilty ones.”

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