A doctor who was dragged out of his home and stabbed after answering the door thinking it was a Halloween prank calmly told 999 call handlers that he had been attacked.
Dr Adam Towler was stabbed just two centimetres away from his heart in an unprovoked attack at his home by 17-year-old Chanz Maximen – who has now been jailed for life.
Maximen had knocked on Dr Towler’s front door in Clifton, Bristol, and shone a light through the letterbox on 30 October 2019, in what was mistaken as a prank.
The teenager left the doctor for dead in the street after stabbing him nine times and vacated the immediate vicinity, but did not go far.
The victim, a former trauma specialist, managed to crawl back inside his house but was bleeding so profusely he was initially unable to use his phone keypad or facial recognition to call 999.
When he eventually managed to make the call, Maximen returned to the address and could be heard throwing his full body weight against the front door trying to force his way in.
In a 999 call released after the sentencing, Dr Towler can be heard telling operators: “There is a man with a knife who injured me in the vicinity. He’s shining a light through the door. I believe he is mentally disturbed.
“I’m bleeding – he’s battering the door.”
Maximen had told him, “You killed the girl”, a phrase that he has never explained and meant nothing to the victim or investigators.
Dr Towler – who now develops medical software – came to court to give a victim impact statement in which he expressed his concern for the defendant and his future, and the fact he would spend so long in prison.
Describing a holiday he took in the aftermath of the attack, he said: “Amid all the great experiences I had on it I never stopped thinking about you. I don’t know why but sometimes I would feel bad that I had this great freedom but you didn’t – I wondered if you had just made a mistake, albeit a big one, or been unlucky.
“When I compared my position with what I imagined yours to be, it sort of didn’t seem fair, although I know that’s hard to understand.”
Judge Hart described Dr Towler’s statement as “extraordinary”, saying: “Whether it is the effect of intellect, or faith, or kindness and understanding, I don’t know. If it is the consequence of intellect, I admire it. If it is the consequence of faith, I envy it.”
Maximen was not arrested immediately after the attack and carried out two more random attacks in the city in the following weeks.
On 20 November, he targeted warehouse worker Wojtek Rozmiarek as he made his way home on foot from a night shift.
Mr Rozmiarek had sat on a bench to download a podcast when Maximen approached him from behind and sliced him across the face.
Judge William Hart remarked at Maximen’s sentencing hearing at Bristol Crown Court on Wednesday that he was satisfied he had intended to slit his throat.
The next night he followed student Annabel Everitt as she returned home from a night out before knocking on her door and forcing his way in with a knife.
There is no logical explanation for any of your offending other than that you are a highly dangerous young man with a wholly distorted view of life
Maximen denied the attempted murder of Dr Towler, grievous bodily harm with intent of Mr Rozmiarek and two counts of possession of a knife but was convicted after a trial last December. He admitted a lesser charge of wounding Mr Rozmiarek.
The defendant was cleared of the aggravated burglary of Ms Everitt’s address, although the judge said he was “quite satisfied” he was the individual who had forced his way in.
Edd Hetherington, for Maximen, told the court that his client had suffered a developmental disorder that was a combination of both a learning difficulty and a communication disorder.
Mr Heatherington said that Maximen had a very supportive home life and his mother had been a constant presence throughout the trial, although she was too distressed to attend the sentencing hearing.
Jailing Maximen for life with a minimum term of 12 years, Judge Hart said: “This course of conduct demonstrates that, despite your youth and lack of previous convictions, you are a highly dangerous young man, in both the colloquial and legal sense.
He added: “There is no logical explanation for any of your offending … it is not due to any recognised mental illness or diagnosed personality disorder.
“There is no way of knowing when, if ever, you will cease to be as dangerous an individual as you are now and as you were in October and November 2019.”
