|
UK: Kurdish refugee victim of knife horror
5.1.2006
By Rod Hopkinson
|
|
|
|
'Racist attacker' who stabbed 11 times in shops
centre jailed
Jan 5, - A savage knife attack on an asylum seeker
left him fighting for life after he was stabbed 11
times.
The ferocious assault was launched, Leeds Crown
Court was told, days after the London suicide
bombings on July 7.
The horrific violence was captured on CCTV cameras
in the Leeds Merrion shopping centre and this led to
a 21-year-old scaffolder being arrested and charged
with the attempted murder of the Iraqi Kurd.
Charles Richards, denied the offence but admitted a
lesser charge of wounding Zana Osman with intent to
causing grievous bodily harm and those pleas were
accepted by the prosecution.
The court heard Mr Osman, 25, suffered wounds to his
back, face, chest and abdomen.
He lost nearly two litres of blood after his jugular
vein was cut – an injury which could have killed
him, said Sharon Beattie, prosecuting.
She said Mr Osman was with a friend sitting on a
bench in the centre at about 8pm.
A gang of five, including Richards, walked past and
accused them of being "Iraqis and terrorists", said
Mrs Beattie. "It may be significant that a week
before the London bombings had happened and what
motivated this group was the fact those two men were
foreigners – in short the attack was caused by their
race," she said.
Video of the attack, played in court, showed Mr
Osman, who was living in Little London, Leeds, at
the time, being held in a headlock by one of the
group whilst Richards was repeatedly stabbing him. A
woman witness was "rooted to the spot" in terror.
She heard someone in Richards's party say to him:
"Charlie, what have you done? What have you got a
knife for?"
Miss Beattie said Mr Osman was fortunate because his
friend applied pressure to the neck wound to stem
the blood.
She added the victim had been left scarred to his
neck and body and may need further surgery. He now
rarely went out because of fear of further attacks.
Richards was arrested in his home at Neville Parade,
Osmondthorpe, Leeds, and denied carrying out the
attack but later said he had lashed out with his
butterfly knife after he had been subjected to
racial abuse.
Andrew Campbell, QC, mitigating, said it was a
horrifying attack and the level of violence Richards
used was out of character.
"When he saw the video he could not believe he had
carried out that sort of behaviour," he said.
Passing sentence, the Recorder of Leeds Judge Norman
Jones QC passed an indeterminate custodial term to
protect the public which means Richards will be
behind bars for a minimum of three years before
parole can be considered.
But the judge warned him there was no guarantee he
will be granted parole after that time. He told
Richards he had a knife and used it to carry out
sheer unadulterated violence.
"As Mr Osman was held by a friend of yours you
launched a most ferocious attack on him and stabbed
him again and again and again", he said.
Judge Jones added that any number of the knife blows
were life threatening.
"It was a miracle he wasn't killed," he said.
After the case detective inspector Steve Harrison of
the Leeds homicide and major enquiry team said: "The
attack was prolonged and violent and but for the
quick actions of his friend in stemming the flow of
blood he would have died."
www.leedstoday.net
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 