The teenager who stabbed a Syrian immigrant who fled persecution for a new life in Scotland has been jailed for more than eight years.
Sean Gorman, 18, repeatedly struck Shabaz Ali, 25, with a blade at a homeless hostel in Upper Gilmore Place, Edinburgh, on May 3, 2018.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that months earlier, Gorman had been released from jail for a similar offence.
Mr Ali – who wanted to study engineering at university – had complained to Gorman’s friend about loud music coming from their room.
READ MORE: I saw Trump’s racism with my own eyes, ex-adviser says in new book
He could not sleep and he had to go to work managing a barber’s shop the following morning.
However, Gorman, who had drank almost a litre of vodka and had taken drugs, confronted Mr Ali and told him “go back to your country.”
Gorman then produced a lock knife which he had bought over the internet and stabbed Mr Ali six times. Doctors managed to save Mr Ali’s life and Gorman was arrested shortly afterwards.
On Friday, at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lord Woolman jailed Gorman for seven years and nine months for the attempted murder of Mr Ali.
He added: “The attack has caused Mr Ali serious physical and psychological harm. He cannot work. He can only take short walks with the aid of a walking stick. He awaits further surgery.
“The incident has also had a profound effect on his family. His father has given up work to care for Mr Ali and no longer has an income.”
READ MORE: Row over pro-Israeli groups blocked from Glasgow anti-racism procession
The court heard that Mr Ali’s father, Sivan Ali, fled Syria in 2000 because he felt his life in danger because of his work as a Kurdish political activist.
Mr Ali became a British citizen and he brought his family over to live in Edinburgh away from danger.
In June 2015, Sivan Ali and his son lost nine members of their family after an attack by Islamic State on their home town of Kobani in northern Syria.
The court heard Shabaz’s mother returned to Syria to be with her mother who was the only member of her family left alive.
Mr Ali, however, remained in Scotland with the ambition of going to university.
Gorman told police he had drank almost a litre of vodka in the hours leading up to the attack.
He had also taken MDMA, Valium and cocaine.
Prosecution lawyer Alex Prentice QC said: “The accused stated that he didn’t think about the consequences of what he did.
"He only thought about it after. He felt bad about what had happened to the male and he was disappointed in himself as he was giving himself a prison sentence.”
READ MORE: Leonard pledges to drive racism out of Labour
Yesterday, defence solicitor advocate Sandra Walker told Lord Woolman her client had expressed remorse for his actions and that Mr Ali did nothing to provoke the assault. Ms Walker also said that her client wanted help to deal with his anger issues.
She added: “He is still very young. He appears willing to change. He has some insight into his problems, but he does not have the tool or the ability to deal with it himself.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article