A man who chased down and stabbed a 20-year-old Saudi student to death in a random street attack outside his Cambridge accommodation has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years and six months.
Chas Corrigan, who had been drinking and taking drugs and was described as “behaving crazily” at a local pub earlier that evening, approached Mohammed Algasim as he sat on a low wall outside his student accommodation in Cambridge on 1 August last year. CCTV showed Corrigan, wearing a hi-vis jacket, speaking to Mohammed before walking away toward the train station — only to return moments later with a knife.
As Corrigan produced the weapon, Mohammed fled. Corrigan gave chase and stabbed him in the neck. The pair had never met before the attack. Mohammed died of a single stab wound that cut across his carotid artery and jugular vein, causing what Cambridge Crown Court heard was “massive bleeding.”
Fellow student Abdullah Bin Shuail told the court that Corrigan had initially said something to Mohammed before walking away. Mohammed had responded, at which point Corrigan turned back, shouting “What did you say, what did you say?” before punching him hard to the left side of the neck while holding a large knife in his other hand.
Corrigan claimed throughout the trial that he believed Mohammed was acting aggressively and had been carrying the knife merely to “wave” it as a deterrent. The jury took less than two hours to reject that account and find him guilty of murder. Prosecutor Nicholas Hearn told the court: “Mr Algasim posed no threat to anybody. He was a student who had come to Cambridge to study from Saudi Arabia.”
Mohammed had travelled from Saudi Arabia to study in Cambridge, and was socialising with fellow students outside their accommodation when he crossed paths with his killer. In a statement read to the court, his family described a young man of exceptional warmth and character. “He was a young man brimming with enthusiasm, brimming with chivalry and courage,” they said. “He was cheerful, chivalrous, pure of heart, quick to give, and passionate about others. He was his father’s support, his familiar companion, and the assistant to his uncles. He was the most compassionate person to ever visit a mother’s heart and the closest to his sisters’ embrace.”
