Friend drove from Wales to carry out knife attack

JULIA SUTTON

A shopkeeper was repeatedly stabbed as he opened his shop, by a former friend who had driven from Wales to carry out the attack.

Gurmukh Bahia received serious injuries inside Costcutter in Black Swan Lane, Luton, but was saved from further injury by the bravery of his wife who pushed the knife-wielding attacker away.

The assault was caught on the store’s CCTV and was played to a judge at Luton Crown Court on Monday.

Tarlochan Sheena, 46, of Port Talbot,Wales, who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause serious harm. He was jailed for five years.

Prosecutor Beverly Cripps said Mr Bahia had run the shop for 12 years and was opening up on June 12 this year.

He and Sheena had been friends before the defendant moved to Wales to open a shop and they virtually lost contact.

She said: “The victim was in the stock room when he saw an arm coming towards him holding a knife with a ten-inch blade. He saw it was Sheena trying to stab him.

“He tried to stab him so many times he was unable to say howmany. It was relentless and he was saying he would kill him.

“He was stabbed in the thigh, stomach and hand as he tried to push him away. It carried on through the shop and he was screaming for help.


He told police he believed Mr Bahia had been involved in rumours of a personal nature - something the victim has said he knew nothing about.

Sheena admitted he had driven from Wales armed with the knife and waited five hours for the shop to open.

Miss Cripps said surgeons performed emergency surgery as one of the stab wounds had cut into the bowel. She said there had been complications with the wound which was still being treated daily, and he was still unfit to work.

Charles Judge, defending, said for a combination of reasons the defendant was suffering extreme stress at the time.

Judge Richard Foster told Sheena: “Whatever stresses you were under this behaviour was totally unacceptable. You drove from Wales pre-armed with this knife and carried out a relentless attack on him.

“Looking at the CCTV it shows he was almost fighting for his life at one stage and but for the brave intervention of his wife it might have been worse.”