Dramatic video footage has captured the moment an Iraqi man stabbed a university student in a bid to get deported because he had no work or money in the UK.
Rebaz Mohammed was jailed for six years at Southampton Crown Court over the incident in a park in Southampton in December last year.
The 28-year-old had pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm and possessing a knife in a public place in connection with the attack.
The Crown Prosecution Service released the footage, which shows Mohammed, who was living in a hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset, speaking to the student before stabbing him.
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The victim managed to get away and Mohammed chased after him.
Mohammed’s defence counsel, Richard Tutt, told the court that his client had come to the UK by boat but then wanted to be deported and needed to commit an offence that was serious enough, according to a report in the Southern Daily Echo.
Judge Brian Forster KC said the victim could have been killed in the attack as he sentenced Mohammed last month.
A Home Office spokesman would not confirm whether Mohammed would be deported as he could not discuss individual cases.
He added: “Foreign national offenders who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes will face the full force of the law, including deportation at the earliest opportunity for those eligible.”
