This epidemic of slaughter on our streets has to stop
Judge’s warning on knife crime that’s spiralling across the country as he gives blade-wielding thug 27 years for killing dad
A jUDgE has warned of a national knife crime epidemic and insisted: ‘This slaughter on our streets has to stop.’
judge Paul Watson QC’s alert came as he sentenced a man for the senseless killing of a father.
Khalid Mokadeh, 22, knifed Sami Al- Saroori, 31, in the heart moments after leaving a party and left him to die on the pavement. Four months earlier, he seriously injured the victim’s brother by stabbing him with a ‘ jagged Rambo-style blade’. He also knifed a third man in another unprovoked street attack.
The judge warned such crimes were being repeated around the country, adding: ‘The public are rightly anxious that if the courts do not take knife crime seriously the epidemic will only spread.’ He stressed: ‘Somehow this slaughter on our streets has to stop.’
jailing Mokadeh for 27 years, judge Watson told Sheffield Crown Court: ‘Knife crime, not just in this city but across the country, has reached epidemic proportions. Almost daily we read of young lives being lost to the mindless violence of those who carry knives whilst out on the street. Husbands, sons, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters never to return to their families and loved ones because they have fallen victim to the plague of knife crime.
‘Unsurprisingly, sentencing in cases involving the use of knives, particularly in fatal cases, has increased to reflect the genuine concern in society at the spread of crime involving the use of knives.’
The judge said there would be ‘ justifiable outrage’ if Mokadeh was not given a suitable punishment.
Married Mr Al-Saroori, who had a seven-year-old daughter, was stabbed last September and died the next day.
The court heard Mokadeh believed Mr Al-Saroori had previously ordered an attack in which he was blasted in the leg with a sawn-off shotgun.
Mokadeh arrived at the house party on Sheffield’s Wesley Estate uninvited and attacked Mr Al-Saroori outside after drinking in the kitchen alone.
The killer had shaken his victim’s hand earlier in the evening. After fleeing the scene he spent time drinking and listening to music as Mr Al-Saroori fought for life.
Mokadeh was cleared of murder at his trial earlier this year but found guilty of manslaughter by the jury.
The judge said he would sentence him on the basis of a loss of self-control after Mr Al-Saroori grabbed his arm.
After the case the victim’s wife Martina Dalton said the killer had ‘ruined’ the lives of her and daughter Amelia. She said: ‘ Sami and I had been together for 13-years when he was taken away from me. We were together every day throughout that time.
‘He was always here, but not any more. I never thought that Sami would not be a part of my future. I feel that my future has been stolen from me and Sami.
‘We will never get to share, enjoy, laugh and cry together about our experiences. I miss him so much.’
Mokadeh was also sentenced for the two other knife attacks. He had stabbed Mr Al-Saroori’s brother Mohammed in the chest after he attempted to come between Mokadeh and a man he was arguing with. The brother required emergency surgery.
Mokadeh pleaded guilty to the attack and also to wounding a man by stabbing him in the buttock in an alleyway three days before the killing.
Outside court Detective Chief Inspector Steve Whittaker said: ‘Mokadeh is an extremely dangerous and remorseless man who carried out unprovoked attacks that ultimately led to the loss of a life.’
He added: ‘Carrying a knife has consequences and Mokadeh is now facing those consequences. Knives take lives and I only hope this may make people think twice about arming themselves with a weapon.’