A Syrian asylum seeker has been jailed for nine years after stabbing two people while on the run from police. Abdul-Rahman Al-Ahmed, 21, chased a man through Bournemouth town centre before stabbing him multiple times in broad daylight. He then stabbed a shop worker in Cardiff five months later, leaving him with serious injuries to the abdomen.
Al-Ahmed was charged with wounding with intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, affray, possession of a bladed article and possession with intent to supply class A drugs, the Daily Mail reports. He could be deported as he has been given more than one year in custody – the threshold for being automatically removed from the country.
Judge Paul Hobson called the man a danger and handed down an extended sentence to protect the public.
He said: “You have had a very troubled start in your life. Your experiences in Syria were traumatic. I have sympathy with that but also have to have regard for the safety of the public.”
Al-Ahmed travelled from Cardiff to Bournemouth in July 2023, where he was involved in a fight over a watch with another man.
Aged 19 at the time, he and a group of friends chased the other man through the town centre before he stabbed him multiple times.
Then, in December 2023, Al-Ahmed tried to use a fake bank note at a shop in Cardiff and was asked to leave. He refused and was chased outside by a staff member wielding a baseball bat.
The asylum seeker then called a group of men and returned to stab the shop worker, who told the court: “They surrounded me like a pack of dogs. They left me to die on the roadside. I was terrified.”
Al-Ahmed came to the UK after fleeing the war in Syria, which left him with PTSD, according to his defence attorney.
A psychiatric report said the Cardiff stabbing may have been influenced by his mental health issues, whereas the Bournemouth stabbing was “threat-driven”.