South Sudanese national Both Douk Deng, 21, was jailed for two years after going to Edgar Wood Academy in Heywood armed with a hammer, a hatchet and a kitchen knife. Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Deng, who had applied for and been refused asylum on three occasions, wanted to “create a scene for attention” to aid his cause.
Incident at the school
Deng was arrested after workmen confronted him on the premises of the school on August 6 last year. A member of the public had raised the alarm after he was observed “behaving oddly” in the street nearby, carrying a petrol can with a hammer tied to his belt. He was “mumbling” as he walked a “full circuit” around the school, which was closed for the summer, scanning the building before approaching it. Builders working on site became concerned and called the police.
Weapons found
When detained, Deng was found in possession of the hammer, a hatchet, a seven-inch kitchen knife, and a jerry can containing half a litre of petrol. A day earlier, he was spotted “acting oddly” at another school, Holy Family RC and CE College in Rochdale, also closed, where he kicked and damaged its intercom.
Defence and background
Sara Haque, defending, said: “He maintains that his actions were not motivated by any desire to injury or harm any person. This was a bizarre and compulsive act lacking in any type of maturity at a time when he was in deep distress having left Sudan and his family in traumatic circumstances. He wanted attention and he was in crisis but he was not motivated by hostility towards children, teachers or the wider public. There is no evidence that he threatened any individual.”
Deng, who has a wife and children, was placed in multiple accommodation housing (HMO) on his arrival in the UK. Ms Haque said: “He found himself in a foreign country with very limited English and unable to work because of his immigration status. He believed and felt no-one was listening to him and no-one was helping him. He felt he had reached the of his ability to cope within the HMO where others in similar circumstances to him had been assisted by the immigration authorities. He became increasingly frustrated that the same was not happening for him. His only wish is to work and find money to support his family.”
Psychiatric reports had not identified any major mental health issues.
Sentence and judge's comments
Deng, of Heywood, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to offences including criminal damage and possessing weapons and a knife in a public place and on school premises. He was told he must serve up to half his sentence in custody and the remainder on licence. Judge Bernadette Baxter told him: “I have no power to order the Home Office to do anything. But in my judgment, given your circumstances as a failed asylum seeker who has been in custody for the best part of a year, the Home Office should be doing something rather than nothing to deal with your status in this country.”
