Detective Constable Sam Cullen spoke to the M.E.N.’s Amy Walker about the investigation into Viet Tran and the troubling world of online hate
Viet Tran running away after stabbing a couple in Manchester city centre(Image: GMP)
It began with a call to 999. A couple had been stabbed outside a popular and busy pub in the centre of Manchester.
Both victims were unable to speak due to their injuries. The suspect had gone and there was no CCTV.
Their families thought they had been caught up in the riots in Manchester, and couldn’t speak to them to find out what had happened.
With little to go off, police used other means to discover the truth. It revealed a sinister stalker, fuelled on jealousy, revenge and the troubling world of online hate.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Detective Constable Sam Cullen detailed the investigation into Viet Tran, the jealous nephew who attempted to control, stalk and ultimately went on to attack his auntie after learning she got into a new relationship.
He was first alerted to the report when he started his shift at 6am on August 4 last year.
“It’s not often that we get stabbings in that area of Manchester, as you well know knife crime is a big thing but there’s certain hotspots. But then to see a stabbing of a man and a woman in Castlefield, that’s not our normal kind of stabbing that we would get in,” he said.
The detective went to speak with them in hospital, but were unable to because of their treatment.
“Our only hope at that moment in time was forensics on what other intelligence work that we could do. So when we started to dig into the history of the victims, we saw that a week before this incident happened, she had made a call to the police to report Viet Tran for harassment,” he said.
The couple are unaware they are being stalked by Viet Tran, who is watching them from across the road(Image: GMP)
“She had made a 999 call to say, basically, I don’t want him arresting, she doesn’t want to support a prosecution with it, but I need to let you know about this guy who’s harassing me.”
At the time she asked for the police to have a word with him and gave them his number. And with that, the police had a potential suspect.
Telecommunications work showed that on the night of the attack, Tran had travelled from London to Manchester.
CCTV work revealed he had been in the same areas the victim had been to, namely Rosso and King Street. He then followed them from King Street down Deansgate, with CCTV showing he was always around 100 meters behind them.
As the couple walked down into Castlefield, near to the Wharf pub, he stabbed the male before stabbing the woman as she tried to fight him off.
“We needed to arrest him. We established that he was living in Croydon, London, so we got in touch with the Met [Metropolitan Police] who then were able to effect an arrest for us,” said DC Cullen,
“During that arrest he had a mobile device seized and from that phone, it showed his entire motivation. That he was obsessed with her. She is his auntie by law so it’s his uncle’s now ex-wife. It showed that he was totally obsessed with her.”
There had been arguments between the two of them, in which Tran said ‘you’re going to regret this, you’re not going to like me when I’m angry, watch what happens’.
DC Cullen continued: “He showed real manipulative and controlling behaviour in these text messages. Whenever she wouldn’t reply quickly or she wouldn’t get back to him straight away, he would bombard her with phone calls and texts.”
Viet Quoc Tran(Image: Greater Manchester Police)
Tran has also hacked into her social media accounts and messaged her new partner pretending to be her.
At Manchester Crown Court, prosecutor Becky Jane said: “He wrote that she wasn’t interested in a relationship and she had a boyfriend before asking him to delete the conversation.”
He also used an app called ‘Life360’ to track his aunt’s location, but was unable to do so after July 27, 2024. Coinciding with this, he searched for images of a black balaclava and UV defence spray.
“It was extremely premeditated. He’s purchased all these items before the events and then we found that he’d been researching Tristan Tate, Andrew Tate and using ChatGPT to find podcasts that were titled ‘How I got revenge on a girl after 11 years’,” said the detective.
Days after the attack, officers found discarded clothing, black gloves, black balaclava, UV paint spray and a knife sheath. Tran’s DNA was found on the clothing.
Tran was arrested and interviewed, initially making no comment. Then, as he was approaching trial, he submitted a defence statement, claiming he was in Manchester to meet a woman.
Officers quickly found the woman and spoke to her. She refused to cooperate. Ultimately, Tran changed his plea, and admitted wounding with intent in respect of the man, and wounding in respect of his aunt.
Speaking on the videos Tran had watched, he said: “He’d searched it. He’d searched the video of how to get revenge on a girl after 11 years. I wouldn’t be able to tell from viewing that phone that he’s watched it but one could only assume that he’s got access to it.
“So one could only assume that he has watched that video. Maybe he’s watched it multiple times, maybe there’s other videos that he’s watched. I would assume he’s been exposed to that kind of content previously.”
He continued: “I think what we’re seeing more of, it’s young men in the absence of the right role models or them not being able to find the right role models, they’re turning to what you could say are these sort of false idols, people like Andrew Tate or Tristan Tate.
Viet Tran running away after the stabbing(Image: GMP)
“Whether there is something deeper and more sinister going on with social media algorithms it just seems to be that these people are everywhere you look. I know I constantly get people like this over on my social media and I don’t follow anyone who’s in that atmosphere.
“It’s going to be very easy now for young men who are unhappy with their lives whether that’s because the women that they’re interested in, aren’t interested in them or the friendship groups they want to be part of, don’t want to make friends with them or they’re not succeeding in school or sports or whatever.
“It’s going to be very easy for them now to find these false idols who are telling them ‘well what you need to do is this’ and ‘how you need to speak to a woman is derogatory’ and that’s how you’ll get their respect.
“It’s a very overused term these days, but it’s toxic masculinity, it’s violence, isn’t it? Instead of trying to teach someone to be a man through hard work or treating other people with respect and earning that, you’ve got to think you are so high on this pedestal that no one can say no to you or no one could treat you in a different way.
“You are very well thought of in your own mind and that’s all that matters. And there’s so much content out there for them to watch, as you know, and if people aren’t finding the avenues to put their interest down they can be stuck in their rooms on their phones watching this content for hours and hours on end and we’re obviously seeing now the impact that it’s having on people.”
During the sentencing hearing of Tran, the court heard that within his presentence report, a probation officer found he had a ‘sense of entitlement’ over women.
“He sort of believed in a way that she couldn’t say no to him, the fact that he’d been obsessed with her, she told him that she wasn’t interested in this kind of thing, the rage that that instilled in him,” DC Cullen said.
“I think he was quite honest with his probation worker that he couldn’t handle it, he really felt that he was entitled to her love. And something else we found out was that he had used a bayonet-style knife that she had gifted to him as a present and then he’d used it against her.
“So in the darkest sense it’s some poetic kind of meaning of ‘this is all you’ve done for me and I’m going to attempt to end your life with the gift of you’ve given me’. I thought it just shows the sadistic, obsessive nature that he had with her.”
He said Tran’s aunt had taken him in to look after him after he broke his leg, and helped to get him back on his feet.
The detective added: “Obviously he took that to mean something else and became totally obsessed with her, he just couldn’t handle it when he found out that she was speaking to a new guy and wanted to be happy and he wouldn’t just let her be happy.”
Tran, of no fixed abode pleaded guilty to wounding (section 20) and wounding with intent (section 18) and was jailed for an extended term of 13 years, comprising 10 years in prison and three years on licence. He must serve two thirds of the 10 year term before he will be considered for release by the Parole Board.
He was also made subject of a restraining order banning contact with both victims indefinitely.