Manchester Victoria stabbing: Man who launched New Year's Eve attack detained for life in psychiatric hospital

Mahdi Mohamud shouted ‘this is for Allah’ and ‘long live the caliphate’ during attack

A man who stabbed three people in a terror attack in Manchester has been detained in a high security psychiatric hospital.

Mahdi Mohamud, 26, shouted “this is for Allah” and “long live the caliphate” during the attack at Manchester Victoria railway station on New Year’s Eve.

He ran up behind a couple on their way home from celebrations with friends, stabbing them both multiple times before turning the knife on a police officer who tried to subdue him.

Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said Mohamud showed “clear awareness” while planning the attack and ruled that his crimes had a “terrorist connection”.

“There can be no doubt that you have inflicted serious and long term physical and psychological harm on your victims,” he added.

“Your mental illness did not cause you to be unable to distinguish between right and wrong. Yet you pursued radical [Islamist] ideology over months to its criminal conclusion.”

Mohamud was told he will be detained for a minimum term of 11 years, with the judge ordering the penalty to be served in a high security psychiatric hospital.

He will be transferred to a prison to complete the rest of his sentence once his mental state has recovered sufficiently.

Mohamud had pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted murder and one of possessing a document useful to a person committing an act of terrorism.

CCTV footage played to the court showed him running up behind his first victim, James Knox, and stabbing him immediately in the back, shoulders and head.

Mohamud then turned the knife on Mr Knox's companion, Anna Charlton, slashing her across the face.

Police pepper sprayed Mohamud and shot him with a Taser, but it failed to paralyse him and he charged at the officers with the knife.

Sgt Lee Valentine was stabbed in the shoulder before the suspect was wrestled to the ground and arrested, and police found a second knife in his waistband.

The 31-year-old officer said he saw “nothing” in Mohamud’s eyes, adding: “He just was not there, it was just like an animal."

All three victims were stabbed, with Mr Knox suffering 13 injuries including a skull fracture, and Ms Charlton having her right lung was punctured.

While being arrested, Mohamud told police “that was for Allah” and added: “This is what happens, this is for revenge retaliation [against] people who kill Muslims, it will carry on forever.”

CCTV of Mahdi Mohamud attacking James Knox at Manchester Victoria railway station last New Year's Eve (Greater Manchester Police)

The attack happened shortly before 9pm, as the busy railway station swarmed with people on their way to New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Mohamud struck metres from the entrance to Manchester Arena, where Isis supporter Salman Abedi killed 22 victims in a 2017 suicide bombing.

Det Supt Will Chatterton, head of investigations for Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said the “terrifying attack” would stay with the victims for the rest of their lives.

“It doesn’t bear thinking about what could have happened had Mohamud used the larger knife that he was carrying in his coat pocket,” he added.

“I’d like to thank the officers who were on the scene in a matter of seconds, bravely trying to detain Mohamud despite the Taser and captor spray having no immediate effect on him. I have no doubt that their quick actions prevented more people from coming to harm.”

He was initially detained under the Mental Health Act but later found fit to stand trial.

Manchester Crown Court heard that he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and believed his actions were being controlled by the government using ultra-high frequency waves.

Mohamud experienced hallucinations and “complex persecutory delusional beliefs”, including that he was being followed by MI5.

Mahdi Mohamud, 26, was detained for life in a psychiatric hospital (Greater Manchester Police ) (Greater Manchester Police)

But Judge Stuart-Smith said Mohamud’s online activities showed a developing interest in Isis and jihad from mid-2018.

He told the court that although mental illness caused Mohamud’s belief that he was being persecuted by government forces, his interest in terrorism did not have any “significant link” to the delusions.

“Although I accept that your mental illness will have had a disinhibiting effect and may have contributed to your susceptibility to being radicalised by these broader ideologies, I am far from satisfied that your espousal of worldwide jihad was itself a constituent part of your mental illness,” Judge Stuart-Smith said.

Mohamud, a Dutch national of Somali descent, arrived in the UK aged nine and grew up in Manchester before studying mechanical engineering at Leeds University.

The court heard Mohamud started to display “significant mental health issues” during a 2015 placement at Rolls Royce.

He was admitted to a hospital in the UK in December that year, where he told psychiatrists that he started looking at jihadi websites “out of morbid curiosity” in 2012.

Mohamud said he moved to Somalia to escape perceived persecution by British security services, but then came to believe Somali officials were also “out to get him”.

Police restraining Mahdi Mohamud after he stabbed three people at Manchester Victoria station on New Year's Eve (PA)

He spent three periods in Somali mental institutions between December 2016 and October 2018, and violently attacked nurses and his uncle in the period.

The court heard that in May 2018, he created a document entitled Neurotechnology that incorporated extremist teachings and his own delusions.

The following day, he downloaded a guide called “seven most lethal places to strike with a knife”, which he appeared to follow during the attack.

Mohamud returned to the UK in November 2018 and set up a new Facebook account displaying symbols associated with Isis and martyrdom.

From 27 December onwards, he accessed Isis material including magazines that contained guides advising followers on the most deadly ways to carry out terror attacks using vehicles and knives.

Hours before the attack, he created “schedule” and “plan” documents detailing his preparations, writing that his attack would be “simple, unpredictable, steadfast”.

“They will try and stop me at all costs,” Mohamud wrote. “Strong words and then fight.”

He deleted encrypted messaging applications, including WhatsApp and Telegram, shortly before leaving his family home for the attack.

In an interview with a psychologist last month, Mohamud claimed the government was controlling his body during the attack, adding: “I don’t know why I attacked those people, I cannot remember stabbing them, I don’t know who I stabbed or whether it was wrong or what I was intending.”