Attacker Who Confessed Nine Years Later

A man who fled the country after carrying out a knife attack confessed nine years later to clear his conscience, a court heard today.

Abdullah Gullaid slashed his victim with an imitation Swiss Army knife, leaving him with four puncture wounds to the chest, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

He then fled, using a false passport to return to his native Somalia, where he married and had two children.

Sarah Waters, prosecuting, said Gullaid, now 29, returned to Britain earlier this year to see his sick father, and walked into a police station to confess to the attack.

In March 1995, she said, Gullaid had gone to TV and Video Plus in Newport, south Wales, where youngsters gathered to play pool and computer games.

The victim was being abusive and was enticing Gullaid to fight, said Miss Waters.

She added that Gullaid reacted when he was sworn at and racially abused.

"There were punches thrown," she said. "There was a scuffle; the complainant held the defendant in a headlock and the defendant, in trying to get the complainant from around his neck, pulled out a knife."

Gullaid, of West Surrey Road, London, admitted unlawful wounding.

Ron Christie, defending, said: "He came back and did this because of conscience. He has his own faith.

"He could not have lived with this any longer and having come back he wanted to put things right."

Jailing Gullaid for 12 months, Judge Roderick Denyer QC said: "I accept you were not the aggressor.

"You were in fact the victim of aggression, you did your best not to get involved in the fight, but you did eventually produce a knife.

"Where there is a stabbing with a knife I'm afraid there has to be a custodial sentence."


By Gemma Collins
© owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Plc 2004