A MAN who screamed “white power” as he launched a machete attack on an Asian dentist has been found guilty of attempting to murder him.
Zack Davies – who described Jihadi John as an “inspiration” – claimed he never intended to kill Dr Sarandev Bhambra, 24, when he launched his hammer and machete attack at the Tesco supermarket in Mold in January.
Judge Rhys Rowlands sent Davies to a high security hospital for psychiatric reports to be prepared before he sentences him on September 11.
“I hold the view he is an incredibly dangerous young man. If it is not going to be a hospital order, it will be the longest possible sentence,” said the judge.
“Dr Bhambra sustained the most dreadful life-changing injuries during a sustained racist attack on an innocent man, a member of a caring profession here in Mold carryng out work for the benefit of the community, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
A Mold Crown Court jury took just three hours and 40 minutes to decide he was guilty of attempted murder – to cheers and applause from the pubic gallery.
Davies showed no emotion as the verdict was read out.
It was, said Judge Rowlands, a “shocking case” of a man attacked because of his appearance.
He said the jury would have been appalled and saddened and praised Dr Bhambra and his family for the dignity and fortitude they had shown throughout the trial and he hoped for the continued improvement in Dr Bhambra’s condition.
He said many in the store and the emergency services had acted with courage that day but he singled out the actions of former army man Peter Fuller for his “quite astounding courage” and said he was considering how it should be best recognised.
“If it had not been for Peter Fuller there is every chance that Dr Bhambra would not be with us today, he would have been killed by this man. Mr Fuller’s courage is truly exceptional.
“It was a desperately sad and sorry case and the way Dr Bhambra coped and Mr Fuller behaved are just two rays of hope and light in an otherwise dreadful case,” said Judge Rowlands.
Newly-qualified dentist Dr Bhambra, who was working in Mold a couple of days a week and living in Raymond Street, Chester, walked into the supermarket at lunchtime and found himself the victim of a horrifying attack which left him with severe head and back wounds and a machete slash which almost severed his left hand.
The jury heard how Davies, 26, of Chester Street, Mold, would sit in his flat playing violent video games sometimes six or seven hours a day.
Expelled from Mold Alun High School at 11 for taking a knife to school to attack a classmate, Davies became a loner and admitted carrying a knife with him every day since he was 15 because of his growing paranoia.
He harboured a hatred for his mother’s boyfriend, a man he blamed for having to leave his mother’s home and on January 14 packed a machete, hammer and knife into his rucksack and went to attack the boyfriend, Sion Williams, who worked at the town’s post office in Earl Road.
When he failed to find him he sat for while before making his way through town where he caught site of Dr Bhambra near the bus station
Sion ap Mihangel, prosecuting, said Davies then followed Dr Bhambra to Tesco where he put down his rucksack, took out the hammer and machete and attacked him from behind with a hammer blow to the head shouting “white power” and “remember Lee Rigby”.
Terrified shoppers told how Davies then pursued the bleeding Dr Bhambra who fell several times as Davies slashed his skull to the bone and gashed his back with the machete and cut the nerves and tendons to his left hand as he tried to defend himself.
Dr Bhambra said he thought he was going to die. His left hand was “hanging off” and being fit he felt kept him from falling unconscious.
His ordeal ended when ex-soldier Peter Fuller bravely stepped into Davies’ path and told him he was ex-Forces and to stop, because he was not solving anything.
Davies said “we are under attack” but Mr Fuller said what he was doing was madness and Dr Bhambra was not guilty of anything.
Davies told the court he could not remember saying to Fuller he originally had gone to the post office to “kill” his mother’s partner.
Davies became calm and put his weapons down. As he was handcuffed and taken away by police Davies told the gathered crowd that he had done it for murdered guardsman Lee Rigby. He had done it for “them” and for the UK.
Mr ap Mihangel described Davies as a racist with a fascination for Far Right ideologies and read everything from Koran passages to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. In interview he had told police that maybe the “wrong” side had won the Second World War.
He even said he had considered at one point converting to Islam because he was tired of his new flatmates and their drug-taking.
Davies, who Mr ap Mihangel said was intelligent and “well read in his field”, said he was interested in extreme left and right wing ideologies and had been fascinated by Isis and its “no compromise” philosophy. He had taken a mask to wear during an atack on his mother’s boyfriend and was planning to shout “God Is Great” in Arabic while he did it.
He admitted he had selected Dr Bhambra soley because of the colour of his skin and Asian appearance.
In court Davies apologised to the family of Lee Rigby for dragging his name into the case and also to Dr Bhambra who he agreed was simply an innocent victim.
Just before he had left his flat, Mr ap Mihangel said Davies had looked at a website on the Koran and beheadings. But a search of his computer history also found extreme violent websites such as ‘Best Gore’ and ‘All the Gore’.
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