It was lunchtime on a warm summer’s day when a young mum walked hand-in-hand with her little boy towards Princess Road in Withington, blissfully unaware of the horrors that were following her.
Turning the corner onto Rudheath Avenue, she noticed a young man with a vacant look walking behind her. Thinking nothing of it she carried on, but a feeling crept up inside her as the teenager got closer.
Feeling more and more uncomfortable, she said loudly: “This motherf***** taking the p***”, in the hope of catching him out. Undeterred, he got closer.
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Bravely turning to face him, she looked into the eyes of the emotionless man, before he withdrew a large knife and stabbed her multiple times. Her screams could be heard down the road, as her five-year-old son watched on.
As Hasan Arif had his day in court, the woman, who the Manchester Evening News has chosen not to name, finally got her chance to tell her truth.
“Since the incident I have felt so much guilt in relation to my son. My son was with me at the time. The thought my five-year-old child saw this is devastating. I was stuck in hospital not able to get the attacker’s face out of my mind,” her statement read.
“I felt, and still do feel, unbelievable guilt all the time, our whole world changed. My son has never spent a single day away from me since the incident, and this had a massive impact on me, and I feel like I let my son down.”
The woman said she was employed as a support worker at the time, but has been unable to return to her chosen career. She also said that she has had to move house.
She continued: “Every time I step outside I get heart palpitations, begin to sweat and struggle to breathe and I try to hide from my son. If I was in the same situation again with somebody behind me, I stop and let them pass. I am unable to sleep and I wake up seeing the emotionless face of the attacker.
“I have felt shame and blame myself and wonder whether I caused something. I regret going out. Why me? Why attack me? What have I done?”
The woman has since been diagnosed with PTSD and has been referred for counselling. She said she struggles to watch certain TV programmes, and can’t read or listen to the news if knife crime is mentioned.
“At the time I really thought he was going to kill me, and I thought my son was going to witness my murder,” she said.
Standing in the witness box, she took the brave decision to read a further statement in front of a packed out courtroom in Minshull Street Crown Court.
“If I see somebody behind me, I’m often thinking that someone is going to attack me or my son. This was not something I have ever felt or had to think about previously,” she said.
“I was never scared to walk outside. I would describe myself before as ‘fearless’, but now if anyone is behind me I have heart palpitations and my palms go sweaty.”
She also referenced the long delay in the case coming to court, saying that she would build herself up prior to the hearing, only to be told it would be adjourned. “Every time I felt let down, and would become hysterical, and I felt I had no support in this. I felt there was no support for me and how these delays would impact me,” she wept.
She also said that an MRI scan showed there were frayed ligaments in the knee, which she is awaiting surgery for.
Arif had behaved 'erratically' in days before
The court heard that Arif’s behaviour at the time of the attack was erratic, growing increasingly more bizarre by the day. He was pacing around the house, drinking a gallon of milk so that he could get ‘stronger’ and was becoming more and more paranoid.
It was the height of the pandemic, and his mum had already contacted the GP on his behalf.
He was also excessively using his phone, to the point his family took it from him. Despite all this, he wasn’t acting violently, prosecutor Sara Haque said.
The day before the attack, though, his mum had messaged her other son about Arif’s behaviour. He responded by attempting to grab the phone from her.
On August 29 2020, at around 8.45am he left the house wearing dark trousers, a red coat and white t-shirt, carrying a rucksack that he was ‘obsessed’ with. It usually only contained some cash and his bus pass but on this day, it held something far more sinister.
At 1.20pm that afternoon, the woman was walking in the direction of Princess Road. Her five-year-old boy was next to her, holding her hand, when she felt an unusual presence behind her.
Initially not thinking anything of it, she carried on walking. After crossing the road in an attempt to avoid him, she had no choice but to turn and face him.
Before she could react he struck, repeatedly stabbing at her with the knife in the chest and stomach area. She fell to the floor but managed to kick out in desperation. She was left with six wounds to her leg.
During the attack, a passerby was walking down the road when he heard the woman screaming. Following the sound, he saw a little boy, then saw the woman on the ground with a male punching her.
She was kicking out at him ‘like a maniac’. The man shouted: “get the f*** away” at which point Arif released the knife and left. His face ‘did not change’.
He was later identified following a Greater Manchester Police CCTV appeal.
Arif arrived home at around 2pm, running upstairs and telling his mum he needed a shower. The following day his brother saw the press appeal and immediately identified his brother, before taking him to police custody.
Arif’s barrister, Waheed Baber, said of the victim: “It has been incredibly brave of the victim to attend court and read the reality of victims of knife crime. The difficulty with this case is that he was suffering from a mental illness and was greatly unwell at the time.”
Arif, formerly of Stanthorne Avenue, but now residing at Edenfield Hospital, was sentenced to a hospital order alongside a restriction order. This means he will be detained in hospital as he receives treatment, and when he is released, he will be monitored for the rest of his life.
He had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia following the attack.
In sentencing, Judge Tina Landale said: “She was a complete stranger to you. She was walking in broad daylight with her young son when you began to follow her.
“You pulled a large knife you brought with you out of your rucksack and used it to commit a ferocious attack on her.
“You stabbed her repeatedly aiming for the chest and stomach, and even when she fell to the ground and courageously kicked out in desperation to protect herself, fearing she would lose her life, you continued stabbing her. She showed tremendous courage.”
Judge Landale also commended the actions of the member of the public who intervened.
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