A jury at Southwark Crown Court has found Dawood Safi guilty of attempting to murder his landlord, Shahzad Farrukh, minutes before he fatally stabbed dog walker Wayne Broadhurst in a random and ferocious attack. The 28-year-old Uber driver, an Afghan refugee, had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Broadhurst on grounds of diminished responsibility, but denied the attempted murder of Mr Farrukh, a Thames Valley Police contractor.
Attack on landlord and teenager
On October 27 last year, Safi attacked Mr Farrukh, 45, and a 14-year-old boy with a knife in the kitchen of the annex flat he rented in Midhurst Gardens, Uxbridge. Mr Farrukh was stabbed in the neck, but managed to escape along with the teenager as neighbours and passers-by tried to stop Safi. Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw KC described the attack as unannounced: “He launched an unannounced attack on Mr Farrukh, who was unarmed and was caught completely unaware.”
Minutes later, Mr Broadhurst, a 49-year-old street sweeper for Ealing Council and a Liverpool FC fan, came through an alleyway onto Midhurst Gardens while walking his dog Harry. “For no apparent reason, rational or otherwise, he was stabbed to death in a frenzied, random and entirely unprovoked attack,” said Mr Laidlaw. Mr Broadhurst was stabbed 14 times in the head, neck, chest, and back, in what one witness described as a “butchering”. He died in the street with his dog by his side.
Mental health and background
The court heard that Safi, who arrived in the UK in 2020 on the back of a lorry claiming to be 17, was granted asylum in 2022. He told a psychiatrist he had witnessed his father being murdered in a land dispute in Afghanistan when he was 10. At the time of the stabbings, Safi had experienced a “collapse in his mental health”, said Mr Laidlaw. “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.”
In the three days before the attack, Safi had attended a GP appointment, had a mental health assessment at Hillingdon Hospital, and sought help at Hayes Police Station. He had believed Mr Farrukh could help him because of his police role. At around 4.45pm on October 27, Mr Farrukh saw Safi’s silhouette through the glass door and opened it to find him armed with a large kitchen knife. Safi made comments suggesting he was angry that Mr Farrukh had not accompanied him to the police station earlier that day.
Verdict and ongoing deliberations
Safi has appeared for his trial by video-link from Broadmoor secure hospital. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, causing actual bodily harm, wounding with intent to commit grievous bodily harm, and possession of an offensive weapon. On Thursday, the jury found him guilty of attempting to murder Mr Farrukh. They continue to deliberate on the charge of attempting to murder the teenage boy. The court was told Mr Broadhurst’s family had wanted Safi to be convicted of murder, but prosecutors accepted his guilty plea to the lesser charge after considering evidence of his mental state.
