Two Oldham men charged with the murder of a taxi driver in Rochdale have been found guilty.

Conor McPartland, of Hollins Road, and Martin Treacy, of Gawsworth Close, were both accused of murdering 39-year-old Ali Asghar, who was driving them, following an argument.

During the trial, prosecutor Galais Gozem told the jury that McPartland had ordered the taxi on the Uber app from Oldham town centre with the intention to meet girls at a club in Rochdale called Ko-Ko Lounge on Saturday, October 30.

However, McPartland entered the address for Coco's Grillhouse and Desserts in Queensway, Rochdale into the app.

The taxi arrived at the address and paused before stopping near a Shell petrol station shortly after 4am.

The court heard that Mr Asghar opened the rear passenger door to let the passengers out and it was at this point that a ‘ferocious argument’ broke out which led to a ‘totally unforgiving attack’ which culminated in Mr Asghar being pushed over cracking his head and fracturing his skull.

Mr Asghar died in hospital 15 days later on Sunday, November 14.

McPartland, 20, denied murder and manslaughter while Treacy, 18, had admitted manslaughter but denied murder and declined to give evidence at the trial.

McPartland told the jury that a row about Treacy eating a takeaway chicken burger in Mr Asghar’s car had in fact erupted and that from his angle it looked like Mr Asghar pulled Treacy out of his car and had started the violence.

He said that at the time he thought Mr Asghar was ‘out of order’ and shouted at him and kicked him in the legs before later trying ‘to stop things’ after noticing Mr Asghar was bleeding from his nose.

Video footage of the incident was played in court and Mr Gozem described McPartland as appearing and launching a ‘roundhouse kick’ at Mr Asghar which caused a multi-tool to fall out his pocket.

The two men then faced each other and Treacy came up behind McPartland and threw a ‘running punch’ to the side of Mr Asghar’s head.

Treacy pushed Mr Asghar who fell and hit his head on the alloy wheel of his Mercedes and cracked his skull.

The jury returned a verdict of both men being guilty of murder after they went out to deliberate at 10.40am and came back with the verdict at 3pm on Thursday.

The two men will be sentenced on Monday, May 23 at Manchester Crown Court.

The Oldham Times will be providing live updates from the sentencing.