Candlelit vigil for shopkeeper

Balbir Kaur suffered massive head injuries

A candlelit vigil will be held in memory of a Birmingham shopkeeper, who was killed in a revenge attack one year ago.

Balbir Kaur was serving customers at the Costcutter shop, in Birchfield Road, Aston, when she was attacked with a machete on 16 September 2002.

Keith McDonald, a 26-year-old schizophrenic, was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after he admitted killing Mrs Kaur in a revenge attack.

Mrs Kaur's husband had knocked McDonald off his bike less than a month before she was killed.

Several demonstrations

He had demanded £300 compensation from Mrs Kaur after her husband, Harkanwal Singh Poonia, collided with his bicycle in Clifford Street, Lozells.

McDonald, of Hartington Road, in Lozells, Birmingham, pleaded guilty in February to Mrs Kaur's manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Birmingham Crown Court heard in April this year Mrs Kaur and another shopkeeper, Mohammed Jahinger, were attacked within minutes of each other at their premises in Aston and Lozells.

Mrs Kaur, from Perry Barr, suffered massive head injuries and died in hospital while Mr Jahinger was slashed across the hand and neck as he dialled 999.

At the time several demonstrations were held outside Birmingham Crown Court to protest about the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service to reduce McDonald's murder charge to manslaughter.

Family and friends are due to gather to remember Mrs Kaur, described as "a much-loved member of the Sikh community," on Tuesday evening.