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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
John Scheerhout

Dramatic moment 'cowardly' teen fugitive is caught at Manchester Airport trying to flee country

This is the dramatic moment armed police swooped at Manchester Airport to arrest a teen fugitive wanted over an horrific machete attack.

Two weeks earlier, 18-year-old Sayam Ali had carried out the attack in broad daylight with a 12-inch blade over a drugs debt, leaving his victim bleeding so heavily he thought he was going to die.

Through his solicitor, he told police he would hand himself in but he never showed up and instead plotted to leave the country. This police body-cam footage shows Ali being arrested at Manchester Airport where he had a ticket for a flight to Malta.

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With the noise of excited holidaymakers waiting for their flights in the background, police body-cam footage released by GMP shows drug dealer Ali being escorted away by armed officers.

Asked whether he has anything to say when he is read his rights, the teenager shakes his head and replies quietly 'no'.

Today he is beginning a long jail sentence for carrying out the machete attack in Rochdale on June 14 when Ali jumped out of a car and assaulted a 16-year-old boy.

He attacked the youth in revenge for losing drugs he had given him to sell. The court heard that when victim's mother found the drugs and flushed them down the toilet, the teenager told her: "I'm going to get chopped up. I'm in deep s**t. I can't get out of this. You don't know what will happen to me. We need to give them back. I don't know how I'm going to get out of this."

Armed police get a grip of Sayam Ali at Manchester Airport (gmp)

CCTV footage played at Minshull Street Crown Court showed Ali chasing his victim across Sheriff Street, slashing him across the shoulder with the weapon.

After the youth had identified his attacker to police, officers uncovered an Instagram post by Ali that day which read: "They f***ed me. Raise alert. Armed and dangerous."

A hunt for the attacker was launched and, through his solicitor, Ali agreed to attend a police station on June 23, but he failed to show. Ali was eventually caught at Manchester Airport on June 29 with four large suitcases on his way to Malta.

After he was arrested, he made no comment in his police interview except to deny it was him in the CCTV footage of the attack. He refused a video identification parade.

His victim, who the MEN is not naming, had a plate and screws inserted during surgery to 10 to 15cm wound which left him with a broken bone in his left shoulder and damage to his muscle tissue. He is left-handed.

He was left with 'significant restriction' in movement of his arm but doctors hoped he would recover and would lose only some 'motor skills' in his hand, the court heard.

In a statement read out to the court, the victim said he was bleeding so much that he thought he was 'going to die'.

Sayam Ali has been jailed (gmp)

He said he was left 'scared' and 'in a great deal of pain' in hospital but worried most of all whether he could ever return to his 'previous life'. He said the morphine he was prescribed 'wasn't touching' the pain.

"I have been left traumatised by what happened and every time I go to bed I hear shouts and screams. I hear them shouting 'I want your arm - I want your leg'. Sometimes I have to ask my mum to come and sit with me," he said, adding he could not even make a Pot Noodle without help from his mother.

Referring to his attacker, he said: "I feel for the position that he's in but I didn't deserve this."

The judge, Recorder Abigail Hudson, told Ali: "You attacked (the victim) and you did that with a machete in broad daylight and you did it because, having been recruited by you, his friend, to run drugs, he lost them. You then then tried to flee the country and you posted aggressive, arrogant comments on social media."

The 'catastrophic' injury he inflicted had caused 'serious ramifications' and would 'inevitably have a huge psychological impact' on his victim, added the judge.

"You used a weapon. It was a dangerous weapon. It was taken to the scene for the purposes of this attack. It was a revenge attack and it was pre-planned," said Judge Hudson.

Referring to a letter the defendant wrote to the judge, Recorder Hudson said: "You say you are sorry to (the victim) but for the most part your letter is a recitation of how this has affected you. You talk about what you won't be able to do, what you are missing out on and the difficulties you are experiencing rather than expressing any real remorse for what you did to (the victim)."

The judge added that the victim's mother had been 'absolutely right' to destroy the drugs she found.

Ali, of Hayes Close in Rochdale, who has only one motoring offence on his record, showed no reaction when he was jailed for five years and four months yesterday after he admitted GBH with intent at a previous hearing. He will be eligible for parole two-thirds of the way through his sentence. He was also handed an extra two years on top of his licence period.

After the hearing, Detective Constable Russell Clarke of GMP’s Rochdale CID, said: "The attack was frenzied and Ali displayed a complete disregard for human life.

"Sayam Ali is somebody that advertised himself online as ‘armed and dangerous’ and whilst committing this act he made no attempt to conceal his identity.

Sayam Ali lied to police after he was arrested at the airport (gmp)

"He subsequently tried to evade the police before we were able to arrest him at Manchester Airport as he cowardly attempted to flee the country.

"We are committed to doing everything possible to ensure those responsible for such acts, are brought to justice and taken off the streets.

"Whilst the defendant is now in prison, the young victim of this attack continues, what is likely to be, a long and difficult recovery.

"The full gravity and impact on the victim and also his family cannot be measured, but I am hopeful that they can find some form of normality in the weeks and months to come.

"I would also like to directly appeal to those carrying weapons to surrender them, anonymously, in our Forever Amnesty bins which are located at 13 police stations across Greater Manchester. Each knife deposited goes toward making our communities a safer place for everyone."

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