Man jailed for life over Israel-Gaza ‘revenge’ murder in Hartlepool
Ahmed Alid, 45, stabbed Terence Carney, 70, and tried to kill another man in attacks described as terrorism
A man who murdered a pensioner in the street in “revenge” for the Israel-Gaza conflict has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 45 years.
Ahmed Alid, 45, stabbed Terence Carney, 70, six times in Hartlepool town centre early on 15 October, eight days after Hamas attacked Israel.
Minutes earlier he attempted to murder his housemate, Christian convert Javed Nouri, by breaking into his bedroom and hacking at him while he slept.
Doorbell camera footage showed Carney, who was out walking in the town centre, cry out “no, no” as he was stabbed by the stranger.
Prosecutors at Teesside crown court said it was a deliberate attempt to target Carney repeatedly before Alid walked off, leaving his victim for dead.
The judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Alid he had “hoped to frighten the people of Britain and undermine the freedoms they enjoy” when he murdered Terence Carney in a terrorist attack.
She said he intended it as revenge for Israel’s response to the Hamas attack and to “influence the British Government”.
The judge added that the attack on Alid’s housemate Javed Nouri was “an attempt to punish him for converting to Christianity”.
In a holding cell at Middlesbrough police station after his arrest, Alid said in Arabic that “Allah willing, Gaza would return to be an Arab country” and how he would have continued his “raid” if his hands had not been injured.
Alid, who strongly disapproved of Nouri’s conversion to Christianity, said God was “displeased” with those who went astray.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Alid he had “hoped to frighten the people of Britain and undermine the freedoms they enjoy” when he murdered Carney. She said the attack on Nouri was “an attempt to punish him for converting to Christianity”.
She ruled Alid had committed terrorist offences when he murdered Carney and attempted to murder Nouri.
Carney’s wife, Patricia Carney, said her husband went out walking early every morning because he enjoyed the peace and quiet on the streets.
In a statement read to the court during the sentencing hearing, Patricia said: “Tess was doing what he had always done and enjoyed doing – he was taking a walk on a street he believed to be safe and a chance encounter with this man ended his life.”
She said she had been with Carney from a young age and although they had been living separately for a few years, they were “still very much together”.
She said in her statement she could no longer go into town because it was “too painful” to be near the spot where her husband was murdered. “From that day on, my life would be for ever changed. I don’t feel anything any more,” she said.
Nouri, 31, said that since the attack he did not “trust anyone or anything” and “all thoughts and feelings I had of being in a safe country have gone”.
His statement added: “I would expect 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 is it possible for someone to destroy someone’s life because of his religion?”
Nouri said he had struggled with mental health problems since the attack and had to move cities, losing all his friends. He added: “I want to tell Ahmed: you are a weak person, because of your religion you attack someone in deep sleep and an old man who struggled to walk.”
During his trial Alid, an asylum seeker from Morocco, denied murder, attempted murder and assaulting the two officers, claiming he did carry out the stabbings but without intention to kill or cause serious harm.
He was found guilty of all four charges last month.
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