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Dymchurch man convicted of attempted murder

14:41, 04 October 2022

updated: 17:44, 04 October 2022

A takeaway worker who tried to murder a man by slitting his throat and stabbing him multiple times has been convicted.

Abdul Malik, 29, "silently" inflicted 12 knife wounds on his screaming victim inside his bedroom in Dymchurch on the evening of January 11.

Abdul Malik
Abdul Malik

A jury at Canterbury Crown Court took less than an hour to convict Malik of attempted murder today.

But they cleared the would-be-killer of allegations he raped and attempted to rape the man before unleashing the horrific violence.

Malik’s victim, who he met on Facebook, would have died without urgent medical treatment, the eight-day trial heard.

Jurors heard the Afghan national, who worked at Aspendos kebab house, invited the man to his shared house in High Street late at night, where he allegedly trapped them both inside his bedroom.

Fighting back tears from behind a screen, the victim told jurors Malik slashed his throat five times, with the pain feeling like “barbed wire.”

Police searched bushes following the attack in January
Police searched bushes following the attack in January

“At that stage I was aware I was going to be killed in that room - he proceeded to stab my abdomen,” he said.

“I was screaming for help, begging for him to stop, but he was just silent.”

The man said he hoped Malik’s housemates would rush to his aid during the sustained assault, which “seemed like forever”.

He explained Malik “suddenly stopped,” removed the chair blocking the door and “let me go”.

“Shock kicked in, I just became numb. At the time I thought it was just the neck [which had been attacked],” he said.

Forensics in Dymchurch
Forensics in Dymchurch

He gave jurors a blow-by-blow account of how he escaped the blood-soaked room.

After grabbing his coat containing his phone and car-keys, he ran past Malik’s housemates gathered on the landing and fell down a flight of stairs.

He managed to struggle to his vehicle in the adjacent car park off Orgarswick Avenue, called 999, and crashed into nearby railings.

The man told how he locked the doors fearing for his life while waiting 25 minutes for the police to arrive.

Meanwhile, another Aspendos employee tried to help him, but he was too terrified to let him inside the vehicle, jurors heard.

'At that stage I was aware I was going to be killed in that room - he proceeded to stab my abdomen'

“I thought I was going to die; either die by bleeding out or someone coming back to the car and attacking me again,” he said.

“Were you aware your genitals had been attacked?,” prosecutor Martin Yale asked.

“No,” he replied.

“When did you find out?,” Mr Yale continued.

“When I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.”

The man was rushed to London’s King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill shortly after midnight and treated for 12 stab wounds.

Police at the scene earlier this year
Police at the scene earlier this year

The court heard doctors worked to close knife wounds to the victim’s throat, upper arm, chest, five injuries to the abdomen, his back, inner thigh and multiple wounds to his genitalia.

He was transferred to intensive care, where he would remain for weeks, to recover from “14 areas of sharp force injury," the prosecutor said.

Malik was arrested in Green Meadows, Dymchurch, at about 2.20am on January 12 and remanded into custody.

Officers discovered the knife nearby, which contained DNA from Malik and his victim, however he denied attempted murder and rape in police interviews.

Giving evidence last Tuesday, Malik said he “didn’t know” what happened on that fateful night or how his victim became injured.

When Malik's barrister Danny Moore asked how the injuries occurred, he replied: “Well I don’t know what happened that night - I don’t know really, I can’t figure it out.”

Asked how his victim's blood was transferred to his own clothes, he said: “I don’t know, really.”

Mr Moore continued: “Did you use that knife on him?

'I thought I was going to die; either die by bleeding out or someone coming back to the car and attacking me again'

“I don’t know. I don’t know what happened that night, I don’t know,” Malik said.

He told jurors he moved to Kent in 2009 to flee the Taliban, and then found work with the Turkish kebab chain.

In his opening speech last Thursday, prosecutor Martin Yale told the jury: “(We) say, given the nature and ferocity of the attack - the attack included slashing the victim’s throat - Abdul Malik could only have intended one thing, to kill his victim.”

Sitting just meters away in the public gallery today, Malik's brave victim could be seen being comforted by others, after the jury foreman delivered unanimous verdicts.

Dressed in a grey jumper, Malik stood with his arms folded and emotionless as he learned his fate, after jurors deliberated for just 55 minutes.

"You have been convicted of a very serious offence and in due course I will have to decide not only the length of your prison sentence but also what sort of prison sentence is going to be imposed," Judge Simon James told him.

Malik will be sentenced in December pending probation reports into potential dangerousness.

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