Man tried to kill neighbour in psychotic episode

A man who tried to murder one neighbour by plunging a knife into his throat and almost killed another during a psychotic episode has been jailed for 27 years.

Adam Ahmed, a 31-year-old from Sudan, attacked two men with a large kitchen knife at their block of flats in Sunderland in June last year, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Both the first victim, who was on the phone to his mother at the time, and the second man, who was stabbed in the stomach, had their lives saved by neighbours.

Ahmed was found guilty of attempting to murder the first man and intentionally wounding the second. Having been also deemed a dangerous offender, he must serve an extra five years on extended licence.

Judge Tim Gittins said Ahmed left "war-torn Sudan" about 12 years ago, travelling through Europe to arrive in the UK in 2018.

Shortly after his arrival, he moved into a flat block on Roker Avenue in Sunderland where his two victims also lived, the court heard.

The judge said Ahmed became "socially isolated" which "developed into distrust and then a degree of paranoia about [his] neighbours that was completely unwarranted".

Psychiatrists later diagnosed Ahmed with having "psychotic depression" which had been "untreated and unrecognised" by the defendant, the court heard.

Ahmed believed his neighbours were "talking about" him and "making too much noise", the judge said, culminating with the "wholly out of order" attacks on 21 June last year.

Armed with a large knife from his kitchen, Ahmed found his first victim sitting in a courtyard on the phone to the man's mother, the court heard.

He "launched" himself upon the man, pulling his head back to expose his neck and "plunging" the blade through his throat down into the man's lung, the judge said.

The man also suffered two deep wounds to his arms as he fought off Ahmed before fleeing to a nearby flat where "quick-thinking" residents locked him in and gave first aid which it was "clear" saved his life, the judge said.

Frustrated at being unable to attack the man any more, Ahmed returned to his own flat where he encountered another neighbour in the communal corridor, the court heard.

"You lunged at him without warning, plunging your knife deep into his stomach," the judge told Ahmed, who was assisted in court by an Arabic interpreter.

The man was able to get back into his own home and also received treatment from neighbours before emergency services arrived, the court heard.

Ahmed had "come close to fatally injuring" him, the judge said.

He was arrested and admitted the attacks, which he carried out with "gravity and ferocity", the judge said.

Doctors subsequently agreed he had been "suffering from a psychotic episode at the time" of the attacks, the judge said.

The mental and physical damage done to both victims could "not be underestimated", the judge said, with the first man being left with substantial disfiguring scars and needing therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The man's mother also had to "endure" hearing her son being violently attacked over the phone, the judge said.

The man had lost out on a "rare career opportunity" to become a football coach and been unable to joined the armed services as he had planned, the judge said.

Gittins said Ahmed had "outright" refused to accept the psychiatrists' diagnoses or any treatment, leading the judge to conclude he posed an ongoing danger to others.

"You are and will remain for some time a significant risk to members of the public," the judge told Ahmed.

The judge said he could face deportation when his sentence was served.

Gittins also issued two commendations to two of the neighbours who saved the victims' lives.

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