Doormen stepped in to stop broken bottle attack

Police have praised the actions of security staff from a Leeds pub after they stepped in to help a woman who was being attacked by a man armed with a broken bottle.

The victim was on her way home from a meal out in March 2024 when Ibrahim Albashir grabbed her and launched a "frenzied" attack.

Leeds Crown Court heard the men responded to the assault opposite the Original Oak pub, in Otley Road, after hearing her "blood-curdling screams", knocking Albashir, 34, unconscious in order to stop him.

Albashir, who is originally from Sudan and has catatonic schizophrenia, was given a 25-year prison sentence along with an indefinite hospital order after admitting attempted murder at an earlier hearing.

Judge Robin Mairs explained this meant he would be detained indefinitely in a secure mental hospital and, if he ever recovered, he would be transferred to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.

He said it was not a matter for him whether the defendant, who told doctors he was brought to the UK by people smugglers, is deported.

Judge Mairs said the attack happened at about 21:00 GMT on 17 March 2024.

He described how Albashir grabbed the woman from behind in a stranglehold and stabbed her as many as 30 times with the glass in his other hand.

One witness described the attack as "frenzied" and another "thought he was trying to kill her".

The judge said "it is by good fortune alone that [the woman] escaped with relatively minor injuries", but noted that the victim's mental scars are "profound and lifelong".

The judge said he was also worried about concerns raised about the defendant's sexual conduct – including a sexual assault in a hotel where he was staying in Birmingham and another involving a member of staff while detained in hospital.

He also exposed himself to a doctor, Judge Mairs said.

The judge told the defendant: "It is of significance you chose to attack a lone female", adding: "The common sense conclusion is that there was a sexual element to the attack."

In a personal statement, the victim, who is now 32, said her physical injuries may have been relatively minor but "my mental injuries are scars that will stay with me forever and will always affect me".

She said walking past the location of the attack "fills me with panic and dread", and described how the attack has "completely changed the way I live my life".

Judge Mairs explained how the defendant told doctors he was born and lived in Sudan until he was 25 and then travelled via Libya and Italy to France, where he spent some time in a mental hospital and was eventually refused asylum.

The judge said Albashir told medical staff he arrived in the UK from Calais having "used the services of people smugglers" and lived in Luton, Coventry and Birmingham before ending up in a hostel in Barrow-in-Furness.

He ended up in Leeds when he was thrown off a Manchester to York train for having no ticket, the court heard.

Two days before the attack in Headingley, Albashir was stopped by police in the area after he was found with his trousers round his ankles and in a "trance-like state", but he was released with no action taken.

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Lucy Bacon told the court that all doctors agree that Albashir has catatonic schizophrenia.

Katherine Robinson, defending, told the court the offence "would not have occurred had this defendant not been experiencing a psychotic episode".

But she said it must have been a "completely horrific and terrifying event" for her client's victim.

Albashir appeared on video link from hospital for the sentencing hearing.

Det Insp Richard James, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "Albashir has approached a lone woman and subjected her to a ferocious, sustained attack which has only stopped thanks to the intervention of these security staff.

"Thankfully they heard the victim's screams and rushed to her aid, potentially putting themselves in harm's way to protect her.

"They have not only detained Albashir but also treated the victim's injuries until the attendance of paramedics.

"Without their actions, this could very easily have been a murder investigation."

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