A violent serial offender who tried to murder a man who was waiting at a bus stop, in the mistaken belief he was a police officer, has been jailed for a total of 15 years.
The shocking incident happened on 1st December 2018 when 20-year-old Kenneth Salomon-Ngua repeatedly stabbed his victim, Liam Hinchy, with a 10-inch blade in Finsbury Park.
The Old Bailey heard how Hinchy suffered life-threatening injuries, including a collapsed lung.
He was in hospital for two weeks following the unprovoked and cowardly attack.
Salomon-Ngua, who was 17 at the time of the attack, denied attempted murder but was found guilty following a trial.
Hinchy had been getting ready to take his children to school when Salomon-Ngua attacked him.
At the time of the offence, Salomon-Ngua was on bail and had two previous convictions for being in possession of a knife.
Salomon-Ngua had left a cafe near Manor House tube station and walked over to the bus stop where he saw Mr Hinchy, who was waiting for a bus to take him to pick up his three children.
Salomon-Ngua kept asking Mr Hinchy if he was a police officer; he wasn’t.
Without warning, Salomon-Ngua started stabbing the victim repeatedly in the chest and jaw.
Ms Rekha Kodikara, prosecuting, told the court:
“Mr Hinchy was going to pick up his children from school.
“The two primary wounds are the one to the jaw, and the significant wound was the one to the chest.
“The injury to the left side of his chest was a deep wound measuring some 14.8cm in depth, now they penetrated the left side of his chest, fractured two ribs, penetrated his lung and caused his lung to collapse.”
Judge Richard Marks, QC, said Salomon-Ngua “got into his head entirely wrongly” that Mr Hinchy was a police officer, challenging him several times on the matter.
“You refused to accept he was not a police officer,” he added.
“That you did not kill him in the course of this attack is a matter of good fortune.”
Since the attack, the court heard how Mr Hinchy had become a recluse. He now has no social life and hardly ever sees his children.
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15 years for attempted murder while out on bail for two other knife offences. Seriously? This man walked up to a stranger and stabbed him on the grounds that he might have been a policeman. Looking at this logic, presumably if he had been a policeman, that would would have been fine.
Stick a nought on the end and we might be far safer and better off.