This is the horrifying moment an Iraqi immigrant who arrived in Britain on a small boat stabbed a student in a bid to be deported after having become disillusioned with life living in a taxpayer-funded hotel.
Rebaz Mohammed, 28, has been jailed for six years after he stopped stranger Ellis Wheeler, 18, to ask him a question before knifing him in the back in Southampton last December.
Mohammed, who has a string of previous convictions including a prison term, then chased the Solent University student, who managed to run away before passing out.
Southampton Crown Court heard that Mohammed carried out the attack hoping it would get him deported from the UK, where he had arrived illegally by crossing the Channel in a small boat. He had grown disenchanted with life in a taxpayer-funded Bournemouth hotel and complained of having ‘no work or money’, the court heard.
CCTV footage released today shows the Iraqi stopping him to ask if Mr Wheeler knew anything about kickboxing. He then pulled a kitchen knife from his coat before plunging it into the teenager’s back, puncturing his lung.
The young man was taken to hospital where he had surgery. A ‘heroic’ friend put pressure on the wound while dialling 999, and was thanked by a judge for saving his life. Mr Wheeler missed his exams and still struggles to sleep because of anxiety attacks.
It comes with the backdrop of a mooted crackdown on cross-Channel migration by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who is due to introduce her Illegal Migration Bill to Parliament on Monday.
The new legislation would deport bar asylum seekers who arrive in the UK on unauthorised small boats to a safe third country and ban them from ever returning to the UK.