An eight-month pregnant woman was stabbed 24 times in a frenzied attack on a busy high street in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, in March 2016. The attacker was her fiancé and father of her unborn child, Babur 'Bobby' Raja, who had planned the assault for at least two weeks.
Attack in broad daylight
Natalie Queiroz, then 40, was heading to the town centre for shopping on a rainy afternoon when she heard footsteps running behind her. Initially fearing a mugging, she dismissed the thought due to the busy surroundings at 3pm. A man dressed in dark jeans and a black hoodie attacked her from behind, stabbing her repeatedly with a 12-inch carving knife. Natalie instinctively tried to protect her baby bump but described the attack as 'incessant'.
Passersby intervened and pulled the assailant off her, but he broke free and resumed the attack as she regained consciousness. Natalie recalled: 'I put my head down and he pulled up in front of me, and he crouched down and he began the attack again.' She had briefly thought the attacker looked like her fiancé Bobby but dismissed the idea until he crouched in front of her.
No warning signs
In the days before the attack, Bobby had been 'relaxed and cuddling' Natalie in bed and even bought treats for midwives during a hospital visit. He had kept the knife and a rucksack with spare clothes in his car for two days but acted normally. Natalie said: 'He admitted he’d been planning it for at least two weeks. He knew in the 1st [photo]. There was NO warning. He went to work that Friday, bought his lunch 30 mins before, and I spoke to him on the phone 20 mins before it - final words ‘I love you’.'
Survival and aftermath
Natalie suffered 24 stab wounds that hit all major organs. Medics described it as 'an execution'. She was airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where an emergency C-section was performed alongside major surgery to repair damage to her heart, lungs, liver, wrist, and abdomen. Both Natalie and her daughter survived but continue to live with the trauma.
Bobby, 41 at the time, admitted attempted murder, attempted child destruction, possession of a knife in public, and wounding of two passersby. In court, it was said he attacked Natalie after being forced to choose between his conservative Muslim mother's faith and the 'love of his life', which 'tipped him over the edge'. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
