A man was due to appear in court today charged with racially aggravated assault and violent disorder following the death of an asylum seeker.

Iranian Peiman Bahmani, 30, had been planning to move to Brighton to start a new life and to open a restaurant with his girlfriend, Sonia Voza.

Ms Voza said: "We were so looking forward to our new life and now he has been snatched away from me."

Last Wednesday, hours before he was due to leave for Brighton, he was stabbed to death outside his home in Sunderland.

He died from a single stab wound to his chest after a confrontation broke out between two groups, one white, the other Iranian men.

Mr Bahmani was taken to Sunderland Royal Infirmary but later died.

The 27-year-old accused man is due to face Sunderland magistrates today.

On Saturday, magistrates extended a licence allowing police to hold another man.

Three other people have been charged in connection with the incident.