By Rod Hopkinson
A savage knife attack on an asylum seeker left him fighting for life after he was stabbed 11 times.
The ferocious assault was launched, Leeds Crown Court was told, days after the London suicide bombings on July 7.
The horrific violence was captured on CCTV cameras in the Leeds Merrion shopping centre and this led to a 21-year-old scaffolder being arrested and charged with the attempted murder of the Iraqi Kurd.
Charles Richards, denied the offence but admitted a lesser charge of wounding Zana Osman with intent to causing grievous bodily harm and those pleas were accepted by the prosecution.
The court heard Mr Osman, 25, suffered wounds to his back, face, chest and abdomen.
He lost nearly two litres of blood after his jugular vein was cut – an injury which could have killed him, said Sharon Beattie, prosecuting.
She said Mr Osman was with a friend sitting on a bench in the centre at about 8pm.
A gang of five, including Richards, walked past and accused them of being "Iraqis and terrorists", said Mrs Beattie. "It may be significant that a week before the London bombings had happened and what motivated this group was the fact those two men were foreigners – in short the attack was caused by their race," she said.
Video of the attack, played in court, showed Mr Osman, who was living in Little London, Leeds, at the time, being held in a headlock by one of the group whilst Richards was repeatedly stabbing him. A woman witness was "rooted to the spot" in terror. She heard someone in Richards's party say to him: "Charlie, what have you done? What have you got a knife for?"
Miss Beattie said Mr Osman was fortunate because his friend applied pressure to the neck wound to stem the blood.
She added the victim had been left scarred to his neck and body and may need further surgery. He now rarely went out because of fear of further attacks.
Richards was arrested in his home at Neville Parade, Osmondthorpe, Leeds, and denied carrying out the attack but later said he had lashed out with his butterfly knife after he had been subjected to racial abuse.
Andrew Campbell, QC, mitigating, said it was a horrifying attack and the level of violence Richards used was out of character.
"When he saw the video he could not believe he had carried out that sort of behaviour," he said.
Passing sentence, the Recorder of Leeds Judge Norman Jones QC passed an indeterminate custodial term to protect the public which means Richards will be behind bars for a minimum of three years before parole can be considered.
But the judge warned him there was no guarantee he will be granted parole after that time. He told Richards he had a knife and used it to carry out sheer unadulterated violence.
"As Mr Osman was held by a friend of yours you launched a most ferocious attack on him and stabbed him again and again and again", he said.
Judge Jones added that any number of the knife blows were life threatening.
"It was a miracle he wasn't killed," he said.
After the case detective inspector Steve Harrison of the Leeds homicide and major enquiry team said: "The attack was prolonged and violent and but for the quick actions of his friend in stemming the flow of blood he would have died."