Manchester Victoria stabbing: Man admits stabbing police officer and two others in New Year’s Eve terror attack

An Islamist extremist has pleaded guilty to launching a knife attack at Manchester Victoria railway station on New Year’s Eve.

Mahdi Mohamud stabbed two members of the public and a police officer, while shouting “Allahu akbar” and “long live the caliphate”.

Mohamud, 26, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to three counts of attempted murder and one of possessing a document useful to a person committing a terror attack.

He had downloaded a guide on the “most lethal ways to strike with a knife” and accessed Isis propaganda, as well as speeches by jihadi ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki.

Manchester Crown Court heard that he had recorded his plans in detailed online documents that said his attack would be “simple and unpredictable”.

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

CCTV footage played to a sentencing hearing showed Mohamud running up behind his first victim, James Knox, 54, and stabbing him in the back, shoulders and head.

Mohamud then turned the knife on Mr Knox’s companion, Anna Charlton, 57, slashing her across the face.

Ms Morgan said: “As she got to the tracks she felt a blow from behind her to the left. She thought she was being mugged and felt a large body and blows to her back. She turned to see if James was there and started screaming.”

She described the attacker as having an overwhelmingly powerful energy and realised at this point they were not being mugged and this was a targetted attack.

The couple had been heading for a tram home after celebrating at a pub with friends.

Two female officers and two tram staff confronted Mohamud, who they described as “like an animal” who was “fixated” on stabbing and slashing.

They pepper sprayed the knifeman and seconds later, they were joined by two male police officers.

Sgt Lee Valentine shot Mohamud with a Taser, but it failed to paralyse him and he charged at the officers with the knife.

The 31-year-old officer was stabbed in the shoulder before the suspect was wrestled to the ground and arrested, and police found a second knife in his waistband.

Mr Valentine said he saw “nothing” in Mohamud’s eyes, adding: “He just was not there, it was just like an animal.”

During the arrest, Mohamud shouted “this is for Allah” and added: “That’s what happens when you start bombing Muslim countries killing innocent people.”

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.

Mr Knox suffered 13 injuries including a skull fracture, while Ms Charlton’s right lung was punctured and she suffered a slash to her forehead that cut down to the bone.

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

Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC said that although he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, “the attack at Victoria Station was not simply a product of that mental illness”.

“It was intended to be a lethal attack, carefully planned over a number of months, reflecting the defendant’s extremist ideology and his desire to perform violent jihad,” she added.

“The defendant’s actions may have been disinhibited by his mental illness, but they were driven by an entrenched desire to undertake jihad against the west.”

The court heard Mohamud was admitted to a hospital in the UK in December 2015, then to mental institutions in Somalia three times in 2017, during which he attacked nurses and his uncle.

He is a Dutch national from a Somali family, and had arrived in the UK aged nine.

Mohamud was educated at schools in Manchester and went on to study mechanical engineering at Leeds University, before starting to display “significant mental health issues” during a 2015 placement at Rolls Royce. At the time of the attack, he was unemployed and single.

Police believe Mohamud started planning an attack towards the end of 2017, when he visited family in Somalia.

He had viewed terrorist propaganda including Isis magazines and speeches al-Awlaki – who was killed in a drone strike in 2011 in Yemen – and jailed hate preacher Sheikh Faisal.

Mohamud incorporated the teachings into a document entitled Neurotechnology, which he meticulously revised in the months leading up to the attack and shared on Twitter.

The document detailed an anti-government conspiracy theory claiming western nations were using methods of control against Muslims around the world.

Mohamud attempted to share it with Sheikh Faisal personally, but an email asking the hate preacher to pass it on to his followers bounced back because it was sent to the wrong address.

The court heard that in May 2018, he obtained a document called “seven most lethal places to strike with a knife”, which he appeared to follow during the attack.

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

Mohamud also read propaganda from Isis’s central “news” agency on a lone actor terror attack in Strasbourg.

Hours before the attack, he created a “plan” document, then deleted encrypted messaging applications including WhatsApp and Telegram shortly before leaving his family home for the attack.

Rebecca Trowler QC, defending, told the court Mohamud’s anti-western mindset was “inextricably linked to his illness”.

Mohamud said his victims were “working for the government” and believed his actions were being controlled.

The court heard that he suffers hallucinations and “complex persecutory delusional beliefs”, including that he was being followed by MI5 and targeted by the government.

Ms Trowler said his family had slipped anti-psychotic drugs into his food in the days before the attack and made him a doctor’s appointment.

In a letter to the judge, Mohamud’s father said he felt a “terrible sense of guilt” for not getting his son the right treatment earlier and thanked police and the emergency services.

The sentencing hearing will continue on Wednesday.

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