Tesco machete attacker had been expelled for taking a knife to school, court hears

A man who launched a machete attack on an Asian dentist told police that rising Jihadi violence had fuelled his paranoia.

Defendant Zack Davies told police he had been expelled from school when he was about 11 or 12 for taking a knife to attack a classmate.

After expulsion from Mold Alyn High he became isolated and his “paranoia and mistrust” of people began.

Mold Crown Court has heard that Davies, 26, of Chester Street in Mold, admits wounding newly qualified dentist Dr Sarandev Bhambra , 24, in Mold’s Tesco supermarket, with intent to cause grievous bodily but he denies an attempted murder charge following the attack on January 14th this year.

Mr ap Mihangel said that Davies had gone out looking for his mother’s boyfriend to attack him, but he could not find him.

He followed Dr Bhambra , 24, because of his Asian appearance into the Tesco store and attacked him within minutes with the machete and claw hammer which he had in a rucksack.

The terrified 24-year-old tried to escape up an aisle of the supermarket and his ordeal only ended when a former soldier Peter Fuller bravely stepped in his way and persuaded Davies to drop his weapons.

“It was a moment of madness, up to today I have been able to control these urges,” Davies told police. “I hope he is not seriously injured, he’s done nothing to me. It was a moment of stupidity and madness.”

He told police he had a “complete mental breakdown” after his expulsion from school and after an episode when he wanted to attack his mother’s boyfriend he left home to live in a bedsit in Mold.

In his interview, he said he found it difficult to socialise and the noise from other tenants in the flat made him want to attack them.

He described his political views as “nationalist” and said Islamist extremism was contrary to what he believed.

He told police that he had spent a lot of time watching specialist websites and had seen Isis videos of executions. What had happened in France would happen in the UK, he told police.

He said after what happened in Tesco he thought “what the Hell have I done?” He said he should have resisted his “urges” and was glad the ex-soldier had intervened.

Asked whether he had attacked Dr Bhambra , because he believed he was a Muslim, he said: “It was irrelevant what religion he was. It was his appearance, just the way he looked. It did not matter to me what religion he was, it was his racial appearance.

Earlier the court had heard medical evidence of the five injuries suffered by Dr Bhambra, and the five hours he spent in the operating theatre at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

The trial continues.