‘Possessed’ thug jailed for life after stab attack
A ‘POSSESSED’ thug who left a teenager with a stab wound 20cm deep has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 11 years.
Tafadzwa Katsande was just 19 years old when he stabbed the 18 year old victim with a Bowie knife, following a ‘chance’ encounter at a bus stop.
Katsande was convicted of a Section 18 offence, wounding with intent, at his trial in April this year.
At his sentencing hearing, held yesterday at Leeds Crown Court, the court heard that Katsande had been motivated by ‘hostility’ towards his victim, who he had spotted waiting for a bus with the victim’s girlfriend on March 25, 2018.
Katsande followed them both onto the bus and ‘goaded’ the man into a fight, Judge Guy Kearl QC said.
Judge Kearl told Katsande: “I accept it was a chance meeting but you were armed with your hunting knife.
“You got on the bus and you deliberately went upstairs where you deliberately sat next to [the complainant] in order to goad him into a fight.”
Judge Kearl said that he was satisfied Katsande ‘knew there would be a fight’ from the time he went upstairs on the bus.
“At any time you could have changed your mind but didn’t, you were planning to fight, planning to use your knife”, Judge Kearl said.
Violence erupted when Katsande and the complainant got off the bus on Meltham Road in Huddersfield and the complainant was first ‘slashed across the face,’ Judge Kearl told the court.
Judge Kearl said that Katsande then ‘followed this up’ with other injuries sustained to the complainant, including a 20cm stab wound to his abdomen that was so deep it reached the abdominal wall at the back of his abdominal cavity.
“You were the aggressor, you forced the issue on the bus”, Judge Kearl told Katsande.
The complainant had previously told police that Katsande was ‘like a man possessed’ during the attack, repeatedly telling him that he was ‘going to kill’ him.
In a victim impact statement read in court by prosecutor Mark McKone QC, the complainant said that the attack in March 2018 has left him ‘always paranoid and looking over [his] shoulder.’
He continued: “I don’t feel comfortable in Huddersfield as I feel I will be judged due to my facial injury, thinking people will have negative thoughts due to my facial scar.”
The complainant said that he had even considered joining the military to ‘get away,’ but was unable to due to the lasting impact of his abdominal injury – which required partial removal of his small bowel.
“Mentally I will never be the same again”, the complainant said.
Katsande’s barrister, Simon Kealey QC, told the court that this case was a ‘little unusual’ due to the defendant’s lack of prior convictions at the time of this attack.
However, Katsande was later convicted of two more knife-related crimes – possessing a dagger in relation to an incident in November 2018, and an attempted murder in April 2019, for which he was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Katsande was already serving his prison sentence when the trial into this attack, on March 2018, opened.
Judge Kearl said that the knife was used to carry out the ‘sustained attack’ on the complainant, which lasted for five minutes or ‘possibly more’ and only came to an end because Katsande suspected an onlooker had called the police.
He told Katsande that the location and the timing of the attack, which took place on a busy road, was an aggravating factor and there were many people who witnessed a significant part of the attack, including children.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Kearl said Katsande poses a ‘significant risk’ of further offences which could cause serious damage to a person, due in part to his ‘habitual’ carrying of knives and his previous conviction for attempted murder. Judge Kearl sentenced Katsande to life in prison with a minimum term of 11 years, to be served concurrently with his existing sentence.
At any time you could have changed your mind but you didn’t, you were planning to
use your knife