Road-rage driver in rush-hour axe attack on Leeds street deemed a danger to the public
Horrified witnesses thought victim was going to be killed
A drunken thug who attacked another driver with an axe during a horror assault on a busy residential street left him with a fractured skull.
Rohail Ahmed was not only drink driving, but was already on a driving ban when he carried out the bloody assault in Harehills.
A judge at Leeds Crown Court deemed him a danger to the public and gave him an extended nine-year jail sentence.
He described the attack as “utterly motiveless”.
The victim had been driving along Berkeley Street at around 5.30pm on May 14, and was waiting to turn onto Chatsworth Road when Ahmed approached behind driving a Ford Fiesta.
He impatiently began beeping his horn and revving his engine, before undertaking him.
Ahmed then stopped and reversed back, shouting at the baffled victim through his window, prosecutor Bashir Ahmed told the court.
The victim then turned off into Dorset Road where Ahmed then drove at him at speed, stopped and got out, walked up to the victim and punched him twice through the window.
The man got out to defend himself and noticed that Ahmed was holding an axe, which he began to swing at the defendant.
He connected with one swing to the man’s head.
A Good Samaritan intervened and told the victim to leave, but Ahmed continued to try and get to him despite held back by the member of the public.
Others filmed the sickening incident in phones with one saying they thought Ahmed was going to kill the victim.
Eventually, Ahmed got back into the Fiesta and drove off, but the police found him a short a time later.
The 27-year-old drove off at speed, then mounted a pavement to get away.
He ditched his car on the corner of Seaforth Grove and Seaforth Terrace, before trying to run off. He was quickly apprehended.
The axe was seized from the Fiesta.
Once in custody, Ahmed, of no fixed address, refused to answer police questions.
He blew 73 mcgs of alcohol in 100 mls of breath, putting him at more than twice the legal drink-drive limit.
The court heard that he had been banned in 2023 for dangerous driving and had not taken the extended re-test to get his licence back.
Appearing in court over a video link from HMP Leeds, where he has been held on remand, he admitted GBH with intent, possession of a bladed article, two counts of dangerous driving, drink driving, driving without a licence and without insurance.
Mitigating, Michael Greenhalgh said Ahmed had been married but his wife had left him and taken their two children.
Mr Greenhalgh said: “His reaction was to start drinking, it became entrenched and abetted by drug use.
“By the time he came to the commission of this offence his drinking was habitual.
“In sobriety he is very sorry for what happened and the injuries he caused.
“Since he has been in custody it has obviously been a lesson for him and understands there’s more to follow.
“He wants to address the issues that got him here in the first place.”
The court was told that the victim had suffered a gash measuring up to 15cm on his head and that a fragment of skull had been displaced.
Judge Robin Mairs told Ahmed: “It was 5.30pm, the public and children were going about their business.
“It could have been a potentially fatal attack on a man for absolutely no reason at all.
“It was by luck rather than design that you did not kill him.”
He jailed him for six years and gave him a three-year extended licence period, making a total of nine years.
Ahmed must serve at least two-thirds of the six-year custodial sentence before being considered for parole. He was also given a new eight-year driving ban.