The family of a Saudi student stabbed to death in Cambridge, England, have looked back on how he went to the UK full of hope but became a victim of “senseless violence”.
Mohammed Algasim, 20, was stabbed in the neck on August 1 last year outside his accommodation by Chas Corrigan, 22, who was a stranger.
Mr Algasim was on a 10-week placement studying English in the university city when he was attacked.
Corrigan, a construction worker from Cambridge, denied the murder but was found guilty by a jury at Cambridge Crown Court after two hours and nine minutes of deliberation in March.
At the start of Corrigan’s sentencing at the same court on Wednesday, Mr Algasim’s father Yousef Al Qasim described his son as the “right hand and pillar of our household” who hoped to become an engineer.
In a victim impact statement read in court by a relative, he that his son was a “kind, peaceful, grateful and respected young man”.
“We are a peaceful family with no history of criminal involvement or conflict,” he said.
“No member of our family has ever caused harm to others or had any experience with prison or the criminal justice system. The shock was so overwhelming that we did not even know how to begin dealing with the situation.
“The pain of sending a son abroad to study, full of hope for his future, only for him to return to us as a victim of senseless violence, despite having caused no problem to anyone, is beyond what words can express.
“Mohammed was not an ordinary young man,” Mr Algasim’s statement continued.
“His death represents not only the loss of a beloved son and brother, but the loss of a promising future, a compassionate human being, and the sense of safety our family believed we had.”
During his trial, prosecutor Nicholas Hearn had told jurors that Corrigan had been drinking in a pub and was alleged to have taken drugs before stabbing Mr Algasim with a kitchen knife.
Mr Hearn said that the Saudi student “posed no threat to anybody” and was sitting on a wall with a bottle of water.
He said that the stabbing was “captured by a high-quality CCTV camera positioned outside the student accommodation”, and video of this was shown to the jury.
It showed Mr Algasim sitting on a low wall with a group of others around him as Corrigan, wearing in a hi-vis jacket, walks towards the group.
Mr Hearn said fellow student Abdullah bin Shuail, “heard the defendant say something to Mr Algasim but he could not hear what was said and he could not hear whether Mr Algasim said anything in reply”.
He said Corrigan walked away from the group towards the railway station. Mr bin Shuail heard Mr Algasim say something to the defendant but “could only make out one word – ‘centre’”.
Mr Algasim had suffered a deep wound to his neck, inflicted by kitchen knife. Police later found the knife in a bush.
Doctors who were passing by the scene tried to save Mr Algasim’s life but bled out and died of haemorrhaging at the scene.
Corrigan claimed that he had the knife with him to frighten off any attacker. He claimed he did not realise he had made contact with Mr Algasim.
His father, 50-year-old Peter Corrigan, of Cambridge, admitted at an earlier hearing to assisting an offender.
