Manchester Victoria knifeman to serve life term in high-security psychiatric hospital

A man who launched a frenzied knife attack on police and commuters at Manchester Victoria train station has been given a life sentence and will be detained in a high-security psychiatric hospital.

Mahdi Mohamud admitted to three counts of attempted murder following the attack on New Year’s Eve 2018 and will serve a minimum term of 11 years.

The 26-year-old also pleaded guilty to one count of the possession of a document or record likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Mohamud shouted “Allahu akbar” and “long live the caliphate” as he stabbed and slashed at a couple in their 50s who were walking to a tram platform.

James Knox suffered 13 injuries, including a fractured skull, after being knifed in the back, shoulders and head with a fillet knife.

Mohamud then turned on Mr Knox’s partner Anna Charlton, who suffered a slash to her forehead that cut down to the bone, and had her right lung punctured.

PC Ashleigh Williams and her colleague PC Marsha Selby, along with two tram staff, confronted Mohamud, who “like an animal” was “fixated” on stabbing and slashing, witnesses said.

The 26-year-old was pepper sprayed before PC Tom Wright arrived seconds later with Sergeant Lee Valentine, who shot Mohamud with a Taser.

However, the taser got stuck in Mohamud’s thick jacket, and before the sergeant could reload, Mohamud ran along the blood-spattered platform charging at the officers with his knife.

Sgt Valentine was stabbed in the shoulder before Mohamud was wrestled to the ground and arrested.

A second kitchen knife was found in his waistband.

Mohamud’s sentence will be carried out in a hospital until his mental state is deemed sufficient enough that he can be transferred to a prison to finish off his sentence.

He suffered a drug-induced psychosis in 2015 after gaining a placement with Rolls-Royce, which led to him being sectioned and spending time in mental hospitals in the UK and in Somalia.

In mitigation, his lawyer Nasir Hafezi argued that Mohamud’s mental illness led to him carrying out the attack.

However, in sentencing, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said: “In general terms your mental illness did not cause you to be unable to distinguish between right and wrong.

“For these main reasons I conclude that, though your mental illness made a significant contribution, probably by exacerbating the seeds of Islamic radicalisation and by a disinhibiting effect, you retain substantial responsibility and culpability for your acts.”

In a statement following the sentencing, Mr Hafezi called for a change in the law around the definitions of insanity so that the legal and medical definitions of the condition are the same.

Mohamud’s father sent a letter to the court, expressing that the family were “all shocked by knowing what Mahdi had done”.

He added: “I believe that if it wasn’t for Mahdi’s mental health illness, he would not have done these awful acts.”

(c) Sky News 2019: Manchester Victoria knifeman to serve life term in high-security psychiatric hospital