Man Sentenced to Seven Years After Nixon Court Student Accommodation Stabbing

A 27-year-old man who inflicted a life-threatening stab wound during a mask-wearing gang attack on a group of students in Leicester has been sentenced to seven years and six months in prison. Waqas Malik, of Dedworth Road, Windsor, was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court following a trial in which a jury convicted him of causing section 18 grievous bodily harm and possession of a knife blade or sharp pointed article in a public place. He was acquitted of violent disorder. His four co-defendants—Netharsan Berinbarasah, 27, Ali Usman Muhamed, 24, Nazir Mohammed, 27, and Varan Kang, 24—were jailed for periods ranging between 16 and 21 months after pleading guilty to violent disorder, while a sixth man awaits sentencing.

The court heard that shortly before 11.30pm on Thursday 20 January 2022, a six-man group entered the common room of student accommodation in Nixon Court, Leicester, where students had gathered before heading to a pre-planned event at a city bar. With their faces covered and hoods up, the group immediately initiated a violence-fuelled assault on two targeted individuals. During the ensuing disturbance, internal CCTV footage captured Malik producing a knife from his waistband and stabbing a 20-year-old bystander in the stomach. A second attacker wielded a hammer during the incident before the assailants fled to two waiting getaway cars.

Detectives from Leicestershire Police established the identities of the offenders using forensic evidence from discarded face masks and fingerprints left inside the vehicles, alongside extensive CCTV trawls, automatic number plate recognition and phone data. CCTV footage tracked the group's movements before and after the violent disorder, with several defendants subsequently traced to the same city bar event the students had intended to attend.

The victim required emergency surgery for a single wound to his abdomen after receiving initial first aid at the scene from friends and a responding emergency doctor. Investigating officer Detective Constable Richard Van de Velde noted that while the victim survived the serious knife crime attack, he remains affected both physically and mentally. Van de Velde described the incident as clearly premeditated, adding that the group entered the room ready for violence and left a gathering of students terrorised, leaving the defendants with criminal records and custodial sentences.