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🇬🇧 United Kingdom /Crime & Justice

Uber driver who killed dog walker is also found guilty of trying to murder his landlord

From The Guardian · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • An Uber driver has been found guilty of attempting to murder his landlord and killing a dog walker during a psychotic episode.
  • Dawood Safi, an Afghan refugee, stabbed his landlord, Shahzad Farrukh, and then fatally attacked Wayne Broadhurst minutes later.
  • Safi had pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to his mental state, but the jury convicted him of attempted murder for the attack on his landlord.

An Uber driver has been convicted of attempting to murder his landlord and killing a dog walker in a violent rampage fueled by a psychotic episode. Dawood Safi, 28, was found guilty by a jury of the attempted murder of Shahzad Farrukh, his landlord, and the manslaughter of Wayne Broadhurst, a 49-year-old dog walker.

The attacks occurred last October in Uxbridge, west London. Safi first assaulted his landlord, stabbing him in the neck, before encountering Broadhurst and stabbing him multiple times. Both Farrukh and a 14-year-old boy, also attacked by Safi, managed to escape the initial assault.

The defendant was hearing voices, he’d become consumed by paranoia and delusional beliefs which included that people generally and members of his family in this country were both controlling him and plotting against him.

— Jonathan Laidlaw KCThe prosecuting barrister described the defendant's mental state at the time of the attacks.

During the trial, Safi pleaded guilty to manslaughter of Broadhurst, citing diminished responsibility due to a psychotic state. He also admitted to grievous bodily harm with intent against Farrukh and actual bodily harm against the boy. However, the jury rejected the diminished responsibility plea for the attack on his landlord, convicting him of attempted murder.

He launched an unannounced attack on Mr Farrukh, who was unarmed and was caught completely unaware.

— Jonathan Laidlaw KCThe prosecuting barrister described the initial attack on the landlord.

Safi, an Afghan refugee who arrived in the UK in 2020 and was granted asylum in 2022, reportedly told a psychiatrist he had witnessed his father's murder in Afghanistan. However, the prosecution stated this account was untrue. Mental health experts concluded Safi had experienced a severe mental collapse, hearing voices and suffering from paranoia and delusions at the time of the attacks.

The prosecution detailed how Safi attacked Farrukh without warning in his kitchen, armed with a large knife. The assault on Broadhurst, described as a "frenzied, random and entirely unprovoked attack," involved 14 stab wounds to the head, neck, chest, and back. Broadhurst's family had pushed for a murder conviction, but prosecutors accepted the manslaughter plea based on mental health evidence.

This was a “frenzied, random and entirely unprovoked attack”.

— Jonathan Laidlaw KCThe prosecuting barrister described the attack on the dog walker.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Guardian. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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