THE trial of three men accused of attempted murder has  finally got underway in Worcester.

Usman Multani, Kaasim Multani and Shahenul Alam are all facing charges relating to an attack in Wyld's Lane in 2019.

After more than two years of delays, the jury was finally sworn in for the trial yesterday.

The trio stand accused of attempted murder, violent disorder and inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent.

All three deny the charges.

The jury was selected yesterday but issues over the availability of a number of the jurors called for further delays.

Finally, the reserve jurors were called in and a new ballot was taken to decide who would fill out the panel.

Swearing in the jury, judge Nicholas Cartwright informed them of their responsibilities in the case.

He said: "You are now the most important people in this room.

"I am hear to assist you, not the other way round."

Owais Saleem suffered a fractured skull, a bleed on the brain, a gash to his face near the eye and injuries to his hand and buttock during an attack at around 1am on November 24, 2019.

The trial had originally got underway on June 15, 2021 at Worcester Crown Court, but repeated problems with jurors testing positive for Covid-19 forced judge Cartwright to re-list the case and try again for this week.

Legal counsel for the defence then became ill which led to a negative test and a further delay was caused by a sitting judge being on leave, a factor that had been factored in ahead of the trial.

Proceedings start today.

Five weeks were set aside in total for the trial, with judge Cartwright saying he expected the case to take at least three.

Usman Multani, 27, of Westminster Road, Ronkswood, Kaasim Multani, 23, also of Westminster Road and Shahenul Alam, of Ivor Road, Birmingham, originally appeared in court back in January 2020 when they denied the charges in their first hearing.