A terrorist who killed a pensioner in Hartlepool town center in ‘revenge’ for the ‘people of Gaza’ has been jailed for 45 years.
Ahmed Alid, 45, an asylum seeker from Morocco, stabbed Terence Carney, 70, a total stranger he met on the street, on October 15.
Minutes earlier, he broke into the bedroom of his roommate, Christian Javed Noori, and hacked him while he slept.
Alid shouted “Allahu Akbar” – “God is great” – during the attack on the Home Office-approved accommodation for asylum seekers, which Nouri survived. Alid then fled into the street, still armed with a knife.
During Alid’s trial, the court heard that his roommates noticed him watching a report on the October 7 Hamas attack and that he had started carrying a knife.
While in custody, Alid told police in an interview that he attacked Nouri and Carney because “Israel killed innocent children.”
Carney’s wife, Patricia Carney, read a statement at Teesside Crown Court and said her “life has changed forever” after Alid’s attack.
The court heard that the early morning walk was part of Carney’s daily routine as he enjoyed the peace and quiet of the early hours.
“Tess was doing what he always did and loved to do – he was walking down a street he thought was safe and a chance encounter with this man ended his life,” Patricia Carney said.
She said she could no longer visit the city center because it was “too painful” to be near where Alid killed her husband.
Doorbell footage shows Carney, who was walking in the city centre, shouting “No, no” as Alid attacked him with a knife and shouted “Allahu Akbar”.
Alid was also motivated by Nuri’s conversion to Christianity. After his arrest, Alid was held at Middlesbrough police station and could be heard saying that God was “displeased” with the apostates, that “God willing, Gaza will return as an Arab country” and how he would continue his “invasion ‘ if he hadn’t hurt his hands.
The judge, Mrs Justice Chima-Grubb, told Alid he had “hoped to terrify the people of Britain and undermine the freedoms they enjoy” when he killed Carney in a terrorist attack. She said the attack on Nuri was an attempt to punish him for converting to Christianity.
The judge said Alid then “attacked an unarmed and elderly man who was unable to defend himself”.
She told Alid that psychiatric reports found no evidence of psychosis “or other serious mental illness” and that jurors had “reviewed [his] lies,” after he claimed police had mistranslated his statement, adding that he was not motivated by religious or political reasons.
Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, told the court: “In other words, he said he carried out the attempted murder of Javed Nouri and the murder of Mr Carney in revenge for what he believed to be the killing of Israeli children. “
Nouri, 31, said that since the attack he did not “trust anyone or anything” and “all the thoughts and feelings I had about being in a safe country are gone”.
His statement added: “I would have expected to be arrested and killed in my home country for converting to Christianity, but I did not expect to be attacked in my sleep here.
“How can someone destroy someone’s life because of their religion?”
Following the sentencing, the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, called for a “major review of the UK’s asylum and immigration system”, which “shockingly” took three years to deal with Alid’s claim.
She said: “These were the most horrific terrorist attacks and all our thoughts are with the victims, their families and the local community.
“Ahmed Alid is responsible for these horrific crimes, but we cannot ignore the worrying catalog of failings in the way the Home Office handled his case.”
Cooper criticized how Alid was not challenged by Border Force staff when he entered the UK illegally in 2020 and that his case was not dealt with quickly.
Conservative MP for Hartlepool, Jill Mortimer, said Alid “should never have been” in the town.
