No ‘rational or apparent reason’ for attempts to murder four people

RACITALAL, 33, was described by the prosecutor, Christopher Donnellan QC, as having “no rational or apparent reason” for his unprovoked attacks.

He said: “We say it was a thrillseeking urge to kill.

“He has accepted no responsibility, provided no explanation for the attacks and he took a knife with him when he went out.”

Racitalal began his would-be killing spree on January 2, by deliberately running over a five-year-old girl outside an Asda, leaving her with facial injuries.

He went on to stab a mother in the head and a 77-year-old man and slash the throat of a 10-year-old boy, between January 14 and 18.

Racitalal’s barrister, Benjamin Aina QC, said after the unanimous guilty verdicts: “He was born in Portugal and is the oldest of three children.”

He said the defendant acquired a BSc degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Lisbon and was two years into a Masters degree when he decided to stop the course and obtain working skills.

At the age of 25, he was employed in warehouse stock management on a computer.

He joined his family in the UK in 2017 and has six uncles and 17 cousins in the Leicester area.

Mr Aina said: “Having got to the UK he applied for a number of engineering jobs, without success.”

Racitalal ended up in low-paid part-time factory jobs and on assembly lines.

The barrister said: “He lost contact with friends in Portugal and didn’t make new friends in the UK.

“He’d previously been active in sport. He’s never had a girlfriend.

“His religious background meant he was expected to have a good job and sound financial background before his family would arrange a marriage for him.

“He’s never used drugs and rarely drank alcohol.

“It’s clear from conversations expert mental health teams had with his family that, by January this year, he became depressed and low.

“His expectations of opportunities in the UK had been dashed and he found it difficult to adjust.”

The defendant’s father took him to a GP six months before the offences as he was concerned about him being quiet, reserved, lacking energy and withdrawn into “his own world”.

Mr Aina said: “There was no odd behaviour that they (his relatives) were aware of.

“There was nothing more his family could have done for him.

“They’ve struggled to understand the events they’ve heard about in this courtroom.

“His younger sister felt unable to return to this court having heard the detail in the prosecution opening.

“The events have caused destruction, not just to the families of the victims, but to Mr Racitalal’s own family.

“There’s been no explanation put forward about why these terrible events occurred.”

The defendant’s mother began crying in the public gallery at this stage of the mitigation.

Psychiatric reports stated the defendant was not suffering from a severe mental illness but he may have had a “moderate depressive episode”.

He may also be on the autistic spectrum.

Mr Aina said the long sentence the judge was to impose should help allay the victims’ fears of encountering the defendant again.

He said: “The only true mitigating feature is that no-one has died. I appreciate that it is by fortune rather than by design.

“The vulnerable people who were attacked are at least alive and (physically) recovered and it’s hoped they can put these terrible events behind them.

“We cannot say why the events occurred, why, as the verdicts indicate, he deliberately drove at a fiveyear-old girl and from thereon after there was an escalation.

“Why there was an escalation? “We don’t know, other than there was a degree of low mood and depression.

“He was depressed because he wasn’t earning the sort of money he wanted to in the UK.”