This is the moment a man stabbed a young Saudi Arabian student in Cambridge during a late-night altercation outside a luxury accommodation block last year.
Shocking footage caught on CCTV shows Chas Corrigan, 22, reaching into a pocket of his shorts where he had a knife that was used to kill Mohammed Algasim, 20.
The student was stabbed in the neck and collapsed a short distance away after running from the spot.
Corrigan is currently on trial for murder and the jury has heard that he admits taking Mr Algasim’s life but claims it was in self-defence as he feared he was going to be attacked.
Opening the case yesterday, prosecutor Nicholas Hearn said: ‘Mr Algasim posed no threat to anybody. The defendant was the aggressor here. He approached Mr Algasim holding a knife in his right pocket, ready to be used.
‘He made a deliberate decision to use that knife to deliberately stab Mr Algasim.
‘This was an unprovoked and senseless act of violence. It was not an accident. It was not self-defence. It was murder.’
Mohammed Algasim, 20, was pronounced dead outside a block of luxury apartments in Cambridge just after midnight on August 2
Chas Corrigan, 22, denies murdering the student who was attending a language school in the historic city
Footage caught on CCTV shows Corrigan reaching into a pocket of his shorts where he had a knife that was used to kill Mr Algasim
But Jane Osborne KC said her client had ‘no intention of using that knife’ and had it only to ‘frighten off an attacker’.
She told the jury at Cambridge Crown Court that Corrigan intended to ‘intimidate and scare, rather than hurt’, adding: ‘He accepts his actions resulted, regrettably, in the death of Mr Algasim.’
The footage shows Corrigan, who is dressed in a yellow high-visibility jacket and had spent the evening ‘drinking and using drugs’, approaching a group of people outside the accommodation block near the historic university city’s railway station.
He approaches Mr Algasim, who is sitting on the low wall of a disabled ramp outside the entrance where he is ‘smiling and chatting’ with friends.
The pair speak briefly, the court has been told, and the defendant walks away but returns after Mr Alglasim, who was in Cambridge for a language school summer camp, allegedly mutters something.
As Corrrigan nears him, he shouts ‘What did you say?’ in an ‘angry and aggressive way’, the prosecution says.
Mr Algasim stands up and the CCTV shows Corrigan reaching into his right pocket to retrieve the blade.
A second piece of footage immediately after the deadly blow shows Mr Algasim running away down the street, while Corrigan briefly runs in the same direction before heading down a nearby pedestrianised area.
Floral tributes were left in the street near where Saudi Arabian national Mr Algasim died
Jurors at Cambridge Crown Court were told that much of the case would rely on CCTV, including footage of the alleged incident itself. Pictured: Chas Corrigan, 22, who denies murdering Mohammed Algasim, 20
Mr Algasim is said to have been approached by Corrigan who a jury was told had been drinking in a nearby pub and may have taken drugs. Pictured: Corrigan who denies murdering Mr Algasim
People can be heard screaming as the shocking scene, from late at night on August 1 last year, unfolds.
A post-mortem examination later showed the single wound hit Mr Algasim’s carotid artery and jugular vein, causing massive haemorrhaging.
Another student who witnessed the incident, Abdullah Saleh A Bin Shuail, told police in a statement that the defendant initially ‘went over to Mr Algasim and got within touching distance of him’.
Corrigan allegedly said something but he couldn’t hear what was said and ‘could not hear whether Mr Algasim said anything in reply’, the jury was told.
The defendant then walked towards the nearby train station and Mr Algasim said ‘something to the defendant but [he] could only make out one word – ‘centre’.
‘The defendant turned and started to come back towards them… his right hand was in his right pocket…’ Mr Hearn said.
‘He was saying ‘What did you say? What did you say?’ in a very angry and aggressive way.’
Mr Algasim is said to have stayed where he was and the defendant shouted: ‘I know what that means’ before he bent down and ‘put his face very close to Mr Algasim’s face’, after which his alleged victim stood up.
Corrigan allegedly spoke to Mr Algasim, who was sitting on a low wall, before walking away. Pictured: Corrigan who denies murdering Mr Algasim
‘He [Mr Bin Shuail] then saw the defendant punch Mr Algasim hard to the left side of the neck. But he then saw that the defendant was holding a large knife in his right hand,’ the prosecutor added.
Corrigan allegedly shouted at Mr Bin Shuail ‘What you do, what you do’ before running away.
The court heard that the defendant, who has admitted possessing a knife, had been drinking in a nearby pub, the Earl of Derby, where he showed the weapon to another drinker, Stephen Papillon.
Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Papillon said he thought Irish-born Corrigan – who asked him to buy him a pint, showed him fake £10 notes and tried to borrow £50 – had the blade for ‘self-defence’ as the defendant mentioned ‘he had been shot and stabbed before’.
He described Corrigan as ‘over-friendly’, rather than ‘badly behaved’.
A friend of the defendant who lives nearby, Simona Miksykte, today told the court she had seen him earlier in the evening and he was acting strangely.
‘That night I don’t even know what came over him. He was touchy and pushy. I didn’t recognise him,’ she said.
‘He didn’t act like he normally does. [The touching] was like sexually, like groping.’
Ms Miksykte said she had known Corrigan for around two years through her ex-boyfriend and ‘knew he was a cocaine user’.
The court has been told she formed the view that he ‘may have taken drugs [on the night of the attack as] she had seen him drunk on previous occasions and this seemed different’.
A security guard who was at the scene of the attack also told jurors today how he ran over to help Mr Algasim after he heard a commotion.
‘He had a girl, one of his friends, on her knees [beside him], screaming and crying,’ Brandon Towns said.
Moments later the defendant ‘shoulder-barged me, then carried on running’.
Other CCTV showed the defendant, who lives in Cambridge, had discarded his jacked in a street near the scene of the stabbing, the court has heard.
Corrigan was arrested in the city the following day and refused to comment during a police interview.
The trial continues.
