A “monster” who murdered one neighbour and seriously wounded two others in a “spree of planned violence” after they took legal action to try to curtail his 12-year campaign of extreme harassment has been jailed for at least 37 years.
Can Arslan, 52, stabbed Matthew Boorman on Boorman’s front lawn in the village of Walton Cardiff, Gloucestershire, on 5 October last year. Boorman’s wife, Sarah, sustained a knife wound to her thigh as she tried to help, while another neighbour, Peter Marsden, was stabbed eight times but managed to fend off Arslan.
Sarah Boorman, who has criticised the police and other authorities for “toothless and ineffective responses” to repeated warnings that Arslan was dangerous, refused to name the killer in a victim impact statement read out during the sentencing hearing at Bristol crown court, referring to him as the “monster next door”.
She described her husband as her “soulmate” and a fantastic father-of-three who “never fell out with anybody”. Arslan had made their lives a misery for years. “We were nervous and scared,” she said. He would pretend to phone a hitman and film the children’s bedroom windows. “He psychologically tormented us. It felt like being in a war zone; we were always on edge.”
Arslan ambushed Matthew Boorman as he walked up to his front door, stabbing him 27 times before sitting on his body and lighting a cigarette. Sarah Boorman was injured as she tried to help. “I hear him saying ‘No’ as he is being stabbed,” she said. “I worry that I did not do enough to save him.”
Their 12-year-old son was playing a computer game looking over the street. “He saw the horror of his daddy being killed,” she said. He ran into the lounge to protect his little sister and brother. “I know how proud Matt would have been.”
Their youngest child still asks where her father is. “They don’t understand why a bad man would want to hurt their daddy so much that they can’t ever see him again. Every day I wake up, my heart shatters more.”
Mrs Justice Cutts told Arslan that the peace of the street was shattered when his “anger, resentment and rage exploded into a spree of planned violence”. She told him: “You mounted a campaign of harassment and abuse of the most extreme nature. You threatened to rape and kill. You spoke of a massacre.”
Cutts pointed out that the neighbours had tried to take legal action against Arslan, whose grudge began with disputes over minor matters, such as parking. In April 2021 he was served with a community protection notice and in September, 12 days before the attacks, the local council issued him with an injunction forbidding him from using or threatening violence.
A week before the killing, Arslan was charged with harassment of the Boormans and was on bail. The day before the attack, he spoke to police and told them he would murder Matthew Boorman. “It’s plain that this was your settled intention,” Cutts told him.
The judge said Arslan was a “highly dangerous” man who had continued to threaten his former neighbours from prison. He has been diagnosed with a paranoid, unstable and antisocial personality disorder but refused to take medication or have therapy.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is examining what actions Gloucestershire police took and a review has been commissioned to look at how other agencies dealt with Arslan.
