A Saudi student was fatally stabbed in the neck by a man he had never met in an “unprovoked and senseless act of violence”, a British court heard on Tuesday.
Mohammed Algasim, 20, had been “smiling and chatting with friends” outside student accommodation near the main train station in Cambridge when he was stabbed on the evening of August 1, 2025.
Prosecutor Nicholas Hearn told Cambridge Crown Court that Chas Corrigan, who had earlier been drinking in a pub and may have taken drugs, stabbed Mr Algasim with a kitchen knife. The 22-year-old, from Cambridge, denies murder.
Mr Hearn said the stabbing was captured by a “high-quality CCTV camera” outside the student accommodation. Footage played to jurors showed Mr Algasim sitting on a low wall with a group around him. Mr Corrigan, wearing a hi-vis jacket, walks towards them.
A fellow student, Abdullah Bin Shuail, heard the defendant say something to Mr Algasim but he could not make out what was said or whether Mr Algasim replied, Mr Hearn said.
As Mr Corrigan walked away from the group towards the station, Mr Bin Shuail heard Mr Algasim say something to him but “could only make out one word, ‘centre’”.
“When Mr Algasim said this, the defendant turned and started to come back towards them,” Mr Hearn added.
The prosecutor said Mr Corrigan said: “What did you say, what did you say?” and this was “in a very angry and aggressive way”.
He said Mr Bin Shuail “saw the defendant punch Mr Algasim hard to the left side of his neck” and “then saw that the defendant was holding a large knife in his right hand”.
Mr Algasim died of a single stab wound which cut across the carotid artery and jugular vein, “causing massive bleeding”, Mr Hearn said.
A woman who knew Mr Corrigan, Simona Mikskyte, had seen him earlier that evening and thought he might have taken drugs, the prosecutor said.
Mr Hearn said “although she knew he had been drinking, she had seen him drunk on previous occasions and this [behaviour] seemed different”.
A man who had been at the Earl of Derby pub, where Mr Corrigan had been drinking earlier, said the defendant had shown him a knife tucked into his shorts, the court heard.
Stephen Papillon said he thought Mr Corrigan, who he did not know, “was simply showing off” and “the defendant told him he had been shot and stabbed before”, Mr Hearn said. Mr Papillon said he had not felt threatened.
Mr Hearn said Mr Algasim “posed no threat to anybody” and “was in good spirits, chatting with his friends”.
He added: “The defendant was the aggressor here. He approached Mr Algasim holding a knife in his pocket ready to be used.
“He then made a deliberate decision to use that knife to deliberately stab Mr Algasim. This was an unprovoked and senseless act of violence.
“It was not an accident. It was not self-defence. It was murder.”
He told jurors that Mr Corrigan has admitted to being in possession of a knife in Mill Park Road.
Jane Osborne KC, opening the defence case, said Mr Corrigan “had a kitchen knife … tucked into his waistband rather than in the pocket”.
“He will tell you he had no intention of using that knife,” Ms Osborne said. “He had it with him so if he was attacked, as he had been in the past, he could frighten off any attacker.
“He wanted to prevent himself being a victim of violence again.”
She said Mr Corrigan would say “in the incident Mr Algasim was standing in front of him. He thought Mr Algasim was acting aggressively”.
The defendant believed “he was imminently going to be attacked so he produced the knife”, she said.
“Mr Corrigan had no intention of using it to cause Mr Algasim any harm … he intended to wave it between them.
“He will say he had no idea he had made contact with Mr Algasim with the knife.”
The trial continues and is expected to last around two weeks.
