Dawood Safi, Detained Indefinitely Over Deadly Uxbridge Knife Rampage

An Afghan refugee who embarked on a violent knife rampage in west London that left a dog walker dead and two other people seriously injured has been ordered to be detained indefinitely in a high-security hospital.

Dawood Safi, 28, appeared for his sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Monday 5 October 2026 via videolink from Broadmoor Hospital.

Presiding over the court, Mrs Justice Cutts made Safi subject to an indefinite hospital order with restrictions under the Mental Health Act, expressing no hesitation in declaring the defendant dangerous.

The judge explicitly recommended that Safi be deported from the United Kingdom upon any future release, stating that his continued presence in the country was to its detriment, though noting that the final legal determination on deportation rests with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

The judge explicitly recommended that Safi be deported from the United Kingdom upon any future release, stating that his continued presence in the country was to its detriment, though noting that the final legal determination on deportation rests with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

The court heard that Safi, formerly of Midhurst Gardens, Uxbridge, entered guilty pleas to the manslaughter of 49-year-old Ealing Council street cleaner Wayne Broadhurst on the grounds of diminished responsibility, alongside charges of grievous bodily harm with intent, actual bodily harm against a 14-year-old boy and possession of an offensive weapon.

Following a trial at the same court, a jury also found him guilty of attempting to murder his landlord, 45-year-old Thames Valley Police contractor Shahzad Farrukh.

The Crown Prosecution Service dropped a murder charge in relation to Mr Broadhurst after psychiatric reports established Safi was suffering from severe psychotic depression and persecutory delusions.

A jury was unable to reach a verdict on an attempted murder charge concerning the teenage victim, and prosecutors subsequently elected against a retrial.

Mrs Justice Cutts informed the court that had Safi not been suffering from a severe psychotic mental illness at the time of the offending, she would have passed a life sentence with a minimum term of eight years.

The horrific sequence of events unfolded on 27 October 2025 in Midhurst Gardens, Uxbridge, where Safi was lodging in an annex. The prosecution outlined how Safi confronted Mr Farrukh at the annex door and repeatedly stabbed him in the neck and chest, inflicting life-changing injuries.

As the violence spilled out into the street, a 14-year-old boy was wounded while neighbours attempted to intervene, including one woman who swung a walking stick at the attacker. Safi then encountered Mr Broadhurst, who was completely unknown to him and was walking his dog Harry after emerging from a nearby alleyway.

In a frenzied and entirely unprovoked assault, Safi chased the victim to the ground and stabbed him at least 14 times in the head, neck, chest and back. Mr Broadhurst died at the scene while his dog remained beside him in shock. Armed police officers confronted Safi while he was still brandishing the kitchen knife and discharged a Taser to safely detain him.

In a moving victim impact statement read aloud to the court, Mr Broadhurst's partner, Ann Newman, described facing a daily battle with grief and stated that her future had been stolen. Paying tribute to the victim,

Mrs Justice Cutts described Mr Broadhurst as a quiet, gentle and hard-working man who was deeply loved. The court was provided with extensive medical evidence detailing Safi's rapid mental deterioration in the days leading up to the attack, during which he attended his GP, sought help at Hayes Police Station and underwent a mental health assessment at Hillingdon Hospital after expressing paranoid fears that relatives were poisoning his food.

Psychiatrist Dr Elliott Carthy from Broadmoor Hospital testified that Safi was experiencing auditory hallucinations and persecutory beliefs during the rampage and confirmed the defendant would likely require at least five years in high-security care followed by several years in a medium-security facility and lifelong monitoring if ever released.

The court heard that Safi was born in the Kapisa province of northern Afghanistan and arrived illegally in Britain in November 2020 hidden in the back of a lorry. Prosecutors revealed that Safi intentionally lied to immigration officials by claiming he was 17 when he was actually 22, acting on advice from a relative to maximize his chances of obtaining leave to remain.

Despite entering illegally and providing false information regarding his background and his father's death, Safi was granted asylum in 2022 with leave to remain until 2027. Prior to the attacks he worked as an Uber driver, studied motor vehicle maintenance at Uxbridge College and had no previous criminal convictions in the United Kingdom.

Responding to the sentence, a Home Office spokesperson labelled the attack appalling and confirmed that foreign nationals committing serious offences should expect the full force of the law, adding that the government continuously seeks to deport dangerous foreign offenders where legally permissible.