A knife-wielding convicted sex offender with a “compulsion” for violence slashed a teenager’s throat with a knife on a Runcorn bus after being moved north from Croydon with no continuity of care - despite suffering a "major psychotic disorder".
Hamid Akhonzada, 26, launched the attack on May 8 last year after sitting behind a young couple on a Palacefields to Brookvale service in Runcorn. Dafydd Roberts, prosecuting at Chester Crown Court on Friday, said Akhonzada grabbed the 17-year-old boy by the hair from behind then “held his head back and drew a bladed article described as a steak knife across the throat”.
The youth tried to evade him and fight back as shocked passengers looked on and his girlfriend, 16, was also slightly injured as she tried to help him. Akhonzada, of Liskeard Close, Brookvale, Runcorn, punched the boy three or four times as they struggled in the baggage hold and then fled the scene when the bus stopped.
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Upon their arrival, officers from Cheshire Police found the victim, who was sitting on the bus staunching the blood from his neck with a Covid facemask.
Mr Roberts said the teenager received glue and butterfly stitches to treat six or seven “scratches” to his neck, described as "cuts" by Judge Michael Leeming.
He had also suffered a defence wound to his little finger, cuts to the eye area, sore ribs and a grazed knee.
Investigators were able to recover the knife, which was found broken.
Afghan refugee Akhonzada was arrested on May 14 in Croydon, where he had previously lived until being moved north by officials to Runcorn.
He gave “no comment” answers in police interview.
Three days later on remand in HMP Altcourse, he beat prison officer Michael Bennett unconscious, first by calling for attention from his cell then punching Mr Bennett.
Akhonzada pursued him around the pool tables in the open part of the wing, punching him again and knocking him out.
CCTV shown to the court showed part of the attack and the inmate then retreat to his cell upon the arrival of a female prison officer who locked him inside.
Mr Bennett described his ordeal as an “explosion of blood” followed by “everything being a blur”.
He came round after about two minutes.
The prison officer suffered “bumps and bruises” in the assault, which had the lasting effect of exacerbating his existing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
A victim personal statement from the teenager assaulted on the bus said he suffered sleeplessness, “flashbacks and night terrors”, nervousness going out, aversion to using buses, and reduced socialising.
After being confirmed as fit to plead, Akhonzada admitted Section 18 wounding with intent, having a bladed article in public, and assaulting an emergency worker.
Mr Roberts said Akhonzada had 10 previous convictions for 23 offences including two for common assault and assaulting a constable in 2016, assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 2017, and common assault and sexual assault in 2018 leading to a prison sentence.
Judge Leeming read details of a pre-sentence report in which Akhonzada had told a probation officer that “he left the house with a knife because he wanted to stab somebody” but also that “it was only on the bus that he heard the voices in his head telling him to stab somebody”.
Kevin Slack, defending, said Akhonzada was diagnosed with schizophrenia after he arrived in the UK having fled Afghanistan aged 16 after a series of traumas.
These included his father being murdered, witnessing someone being killed as a child, and the death of his brother in police custody after his brother was detained by a “corrupt” police chief for having a relationship with his daughter.
The court heard this led the rogue officer to arrest Akhonzada on “trumped up terrorism charges” before locking him up and beating him for two months, before demanding that Akhonzada marry his daughter who had been left “physically and mentally impaired” due to a punishment beating from her father for having extra-marital sex.
Mr Slack said an immigration tribunal found “credible evidence” the police chief had violently assaulted his own daughter.
After arriving in Croydon, Akhonzada was soon sectioned under the Mental Health Act and placed on medication with mental health support.
Following his violent turn in 2016-17 the Home Office launched efforts to deport him, also drawing on his later offences in a bid to eject him from the country, but an immigration tribunal granted him leave to remain because he wouldn’t receive the necessary mental health services in his homeland and would face “grave danger”.
An official decision was taken to move Akhonzada to Runcorn, but medical care for his "major psychotic disorder" did not continue with the move north.
Mr Slack said: “The defendant had been relocated to the Runcorn area.
“I’m instructed that was as part of an official relocation rather than any desire or choice of the defendant himself, but what is clear is that following the relocation the defendant was not picked up by mental health services in this area.”
Mr Slack said nor was there any recommendation for continued medication when he was released from a 2019 prison sentence, which he described as a “mistake” that won’t be “made again”.
An updated psychiatric report said he was now responding well to medication, and Mr Slack said Akhonzada had said he didn’t think the boy he slashed on the bus was real, adding that having seen the videos he wished to apologise to him and to the prison officer.
Judge Leeming acknowledged the seriousness of his condition but countered that convicted sex offender Akhonzada had sought to “self-medicate” with cannabis and spice instead of seeking help.
He said the knifeman had a “compulsion” for violence as he jailed him for four years, with four years on extended licence due to dangerousness.
Akhonzada will have to serve 32 months behind bars before being considered for parole.
The judge said the knife-wielding attacker had been staring at his victim and friend at the Palacefields bus stop before boarding and the girl had smiled at him “to break the ice” but this did not deter him, and the attack took place a couple of minutes later during the journey.
During his sentencing remarks, Judge Leeming noted Akhonzada’s “traumatic childhood” and mental illness - which included feeling “special” and “close to God”, but recounted how Akhonzada grabbed his teenage victim’s hair, pulled his head back and started “hacking at his neck and throat with the knife” in keeping with a longer term pattern of violence.
He said: “Your record for violence and sexual assault is a statutory aggravating factor.
“There’s an established pattern here of violent and aggressive behaviour.
“The timing and location in the attacks are both relevant, in the first instance on public transport in the presence of other members of the public.
“The footage clearly shows how shocked the other passengers were on the bus, and it took place in a confined space at the back of the bus.”
Recalling the assault on the prison officer he said: “He was unconscious for about two minutes.
“It’s important that you should understand that Michael Bennett was simply doing his job, an already difficult job made more difficult by your behaviour.
“He was simply responding to your call to make sure your needs were attended to.
“He sustained bumps and bruises to his face and cuts to the inside of his mouth.”
Akhonzada, who was assisted by a Farsi interpreter for the hearing, must also pay a statutory surcharge.
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