A 29-year-old man “randomly selected” a homeless person to stab to death as they slept in a doorway, a court heard.
Egidijus Kotovas ambushed his victim in a “senseless, motiveless and cold-blooded attack” that took place in East London on the morning of August 24, last year.
The Norwegian brutally stabbed and slashed at the man along the side of his neck, close to a main artery, nearly killing him, a court heard.
At the time, the homeless man had been sleeping on cardboard bedding in a doorway near Liverpool Street Station.
The court heard how the attacker would not have been able to identify the victim as he was asleep at the time.
Kotovas, from Oslo, was convicted of attempted murder following a trial at Southwark Crown Court.
Following the vicious attack, that took place around 4.10am, the victim “stumbled into a café” to get help and was rushed to Royal Hospital London with life-threatening injuries. His condition later improved.
Kotovas was arrested within 24 hours of the attack, after the Met Police analysed CCTV footage of the crime scene and launched a manhunt.
As well as attempted murder, he has been convicted of two counts of possessing knives, MyLondon reported.
When he appeared in court, a jury rejected the defence that Kotovas “had no recollection of the incident having suffered a blackout at the time”, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
He is now due to be sentenced on April 24, 2023.
Robin Ghosh, Senior Crown Prosecutor from the CPS said: “The evidence in this case clearly demonstrated that Kotovas stabbed his victim in an utterly senseless, motiveless and cold-blooded attack.
“The case highlights the vulnerability of London’s rough sleepers given they do not have a safe place to call home and the need for crimes against them to be reported to the Police without delay.
"A highly dangerous individual will thankfully now be removed from our streets. It is hoped that these convictions will go some way to reassuring the homeless community of London that any crimes against them will be rigorously investigated by the police and robustly prosecuted by the CPS."
