Yahoo News Jealous thug slashed waitress's neck in front of terrified diners after searching 'how to murder someone'
A 'jealous' thug slashed a waitress's neck in front of terrified diners after making chilling internet searches on how to kill her. Sriram Ambarla smashed his head against the dock and pleaded for The Old Bailey to stop playing footage of the sickening attack on his ex-girlfriend, claiming 'it will kill me everyday, I can't see it' before being taken away by court staff.
The 25-year-old, from Hyderabad in India, choked and almost collapsed as he admitted attempted murder and knife possession at an earlier hearing. The wife-beater - described as 'jealous, possessive, and determined' by the judge - stood in a green linen shirt and showed no emotion as he was jailed for 16 years and banned from ever contacting his victim again on Thursday, April 25.
The court heard Ambarla met the woman studying engineering in India in 2016, but they split in around 2019 at a time when Ambarla was physically abusive and threatened to kill himself if she did not stay with him. In 2022, they both came to study at the University of East London, where Ambarla continued his threats and felt he had a hold over her due to a £15,000 debt owed by her brother.
In the days before the offence, Ambarla said he went to her father's address and offered to clear the debt for his daughter's hand in marriage. The victim said she was blackmailed, with Ambarla threatening to reveal their past relationship which her parents had frowned upon for religious reasons.
Ambarla also accused her of sleeping with other people, even though they were not together, and bombarded her with telephone calls, eventually turning up at her address late at night and barging his way inside demanding to see her. He was pushed outside, but grabbed her phone and ran off, telling her 'This is not the right decision for us' and asked for 'one more chance'.
He stayed outside for another 40 minutes then left, but turned up the next morning and banged on the windows before pulling her outside by the hand. After a flatmate slapped him and told him to get lost, he waited outside again for another half hour. Still not getting the message, Ambarla turned up at the East London restaurant where she worked and tried to kill her.
'How to kill someone instantly with a knife'
On March 5, 2022, Ambarla rocked up to Hyderabad Wala restaurant on Barking Road in East Ham, armed with a knife that, he claimed, he intended to turn on himself in the event he was rejected. Having taken a seat at the table, his ex-girlfriend treated him like any other customer and served him food while he sat there making disturbing searches on his phone.
Prosecutor Ben Holt told the court there were a number of searches about 'killing a human'. They included: 'What happens if a foreigner murders in the UK', 'how to kill human with a knife', 'how easy is it to kill someone with a knife', and 'how to kill someone instantly with a knife'.
Regularly ordering items to get her to come over, Ambarla told police he snapped after overhearing her saying she wanted to celebrate her break-up. The victim said he threatened to kill her if she did not marry him, and told him 'she did not want to live by his rules'. It was at this point he pulled out the knife and stabbed her repeatedly, continuing even as she collapsed to the floor.
At Thursday's hearing, Judge Philip Katz KC was clear that Ambarla had brought the knife with the intention to murder, telling him: "That she did not die, is no thanks to you. She was within a hair's breadth of dying at your hands in a public and terrifying way."
In the aftermath of the attack, Ambarla left his victim with the knife in the restaurant and approached police officers, telling them 'I have stabbed my girlfriend, I have stabbed my girlfriend'. He would later tell police in his interview he wanted to be sent back to India so he could be put to death.
'I never want to ever see or hear from him again'
The court saw horrific footage of the attack - apparently too disturbing for Ambarla to bear - and heard grisly medical evidence of the nine stab wounds that so nearly sent his victim to an early grave. They included a 10cm gash to the neck, penetrating the windpipe, cuts to the chest, arms, back, and abdomen, all of which left her in critical care for nearly a month undergoing six surgeries.
A month after her release she had to return to hospital with a lung infection, and she is reminded daily of the violence as she hides her scars with clothes. In her recollection of the attack, she said she only felt the first stab wound but knew from its ferocity 'he wanted to kill me on the spot, he slit my throat'.
Two years later the victim has graduated from her Master's course, but is still struggling with panic attacks and fears Ambarla might burst into her bedroom at any moment. In a victim impact statement made this January, she told her attacker she never wants him to stay away for good.
"I really do not think I can forgive Sriram for what he did to me. I just want him to know when that day comes for his release, I want him to have a good life, but I never want to ever see or hear from him again. He's not only hurt me and my family, but all his family too," she said.
'You grabbed her and then launched a sustained and vicious attack which must have been completely terrifying for her'
Two forensic psychologists who assessed Ambarla concluded he was a dangerous offender, including Professor Nigel Blackwood who said 'further specified offences were conceivable, even likely, with future partners'. But Judge Katz concluded his sentence would be long enough not to warrant extending it, in the hope Ambarla could address his mental health issues in prison.
Neither psychologist concluded Ambarla's diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder had significantly impaired his judgement during the attack, but his defence counsel Carolina Guiloff pulled at the thread of BPD in a bid to seek some mitigation on behalf of her client, entering a debate with Judge Katz that bordered on the philosophical.
"He was at the mercy of an abnormal condition, BPD, a personality disorder," she argued, telling the judge his actions were 'not because he was bad'. Judge Katz rejected the characterisation of 'bad', and said: "Jealous people are like they are."
Referring to features of the diagnosis listed on the NHS website, which includes fear of abandonment and volatile relationships, Ms Guiloff added: "It's difficult to see how the agreed diagnosis of the personality disorder is not linked to the offence."
Judge Katz also showed little time for Ambarla's suicide threats, telling the court: "It's all the time 'I'm going to kill myself, I'm going to kill myself', then look who gets killed." The judge did, however, consider Ambarla's previous good character, lack of maturity, and evident remorse as he came to sentence him.
Judge Katz recalled the lead-up to the stabbing: the deluge of calls, the harassment, and the threats. "You grabbed her and then launched a sustained and vicious attack which must have been completely terrifying for her," he said. "Even after you reduced her to the floor, having stabbed her already with staff trying to intervene, you repeatedly continued to stab her."
Jailing him for 16 years for attempted murder, with a 12-month concurrent sentence for knife possession, Judge Katz warned it would be up to the parole board to decide if Ambarla is ready for release once he has served his time. He is also banned from making contact with his victim again through an indefinite restraining order.
Got a story or a court case we should cover? Please email callum.cuddeford@reachplc.com or WhatsApp 07580255582
Don't miss out on the latest crime stories from across London. Sign up to MyLondon's Court & Crime newsletter HERE
