Teen stabs refugee to death hours after being sentenced for carrying knife
A 17-year-old stabbed a refugee to death just hours after he was sentenced for possessing a knife.
Hazrat Wali, 18, who had come to the UK from Afghanistan, died as the result of a wound 10cm deep that was inflicted on him at Craneford Way playing fields in Twickenham, south west London, on the afternoon of October 12, 2021.
Only that morning, his killer had received a youth rehabilitation order at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to carrying a knife at a Southside shopping centre on August 5 of that year.
The Old Bailey heard he’d taken the blade with him to court and left it in bushes outside to collect after the hearing.
Children from Richmond and Hampton Schools witnessed what happened while playing a game of rugby. They saw Hazrat pick up a branch before he collapsed. He died later in hospital.
The killer admitted carrying a weapon but denied intent to cause Hazrat, a student and aspiring cricketeer, serious harm.
A jury found him guilty of manslaughter. He will serve 10 years and eight months in prison.
The court further heard how the defendant later went on to attack a McDonalds worker, an offence for which he pleaded guilty to affray and assault.
Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC told the young man: ‘When you stabbed Hazrat he was unarmed and outnumbered by you and your friends.’
She added that he had made ‘deliberate decision to carry a fearsome weapon,’ explaining how attending the court earlier in the day, ‘you left it in some bushes outside and collected it once the hearing concluded’.
Mohamed Ashuk said in a victim impact statement that his younger brother had come to the UK in the pursuit of a safer life.
Mr Ashuk added his own children are now afraid to leave the house for fear of being stabbed, describing the death of his sibling as ‘a deliberate and violent attack which has left me and my family in a state of devastation.’
Hazrat was sitting in the park with a female friend when they were approached by the defendant and a group of five other young people.
One of the girls with the defendant’s said that Hazrat and his female friend ‘looked nice together’.
Aged 16 at the time, the defendant then swore at Hazrat before pushing him in the chest, after which Hazrat rang a male friend for help.
In response, the defendant produced a 20cm serrated knife which, after further exchanges, he used to stab Hazrat in the side, resulting in massive blood loss.
The court heard that Hazrat grabbed the defendant’s jacket, asking: ‘Why did you stab me?’
Scotland Yard said that during subsequent investigations, the victim had been described by everyone who knew him as shy, friendly, polite and respectful.
The defence had argued their client suffered trauma as the result of witnessing domestic violence as a child, having also been subject to the care of social services since the age of two.
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