HAUGHTON: COPS’ COURAGE HAILED AS KNIFE MANIAC LOCKED AWAY
A knife maniac who tried to kill two policemen with a meat cleaver was locked up in a mental hospital indefinitely today (Thurs) as a judge praised the officers’ ‘considerable courage’.
Christopher Haughton, 33, left three victims with life-threatening injuries and came within millimetres of seriously wounding a fourth as he slashed at them with a ten-inch blade.
The officers had used their CS spray on Haughton but without any effect.
Crazed Haughton boasted he wanted to die and ‘come back as Freddie Kruger’ as he bit his victims and hurled missiles including rocks and a tin of baked beans.
He was cornered in a Halal butcher’s shop in Kingsbury, north west London, where he grabbed a razor sharp filleting knife from a chopping table.
Within seconds he had knifed PC Thomas Harding in the abdomen, stabbed PC Andrew Robb in the leg and slashed PC Alastair Hinchliff’s throat.
Haughton also tried to slash PC Sham Haque when the knife came within a hair’s breadth of his neck.
After he was finally subdued by officers with riot shields, Haughton spat mouthfuls of blood at them and said he was HIV positive, boasting: ‘I love giving women AIDS.’
Haughton claimed he was insane, but a jury found him convicted him of two counts of attempted murder after less than five hours’ deliberation.
He was also convicted of wounding PC Robb with intent and attempting to wound PC Haque with intent, as well as three counts of causing actual bodily harm and common assault.
The Recorder of London, Judge Peter Beaumont QC, ordered Haughton be detained in a mental hospital after three psychiatrists agreed it was the correct treatment for the paranoid schizophrenic.
He said: ‘It seems to me appropriate to draw to the attention of the Commissioner the court’s appreciation on behalf of the public of the very considerable courage of the three police officers who were most seriously injured in what was as it developed a very concerning public order situation.
‘All three acted in a very difficult situation with very considerable courage and the public is in their debt.’
The order, under section 37 of the Mental Health Act, will be twinned with a restriction order without limit of time.
Haughton appeared via videolink from hospital flanked by his treating psychiatrist and stared straight ahead as the sentence was passed.
Bernard Richmond QC, for Haughton, read a statement from the knifeman’s mother in which she described him as a ‘calm and loving’ son.
‘She wishes me to ask to express in open court the profound sadness she feels that her son became so ill,’ he said.
‘She wishes to express her and the family’s regrets and apologies to the victims of these offences.
‘She says when not unwell her son is a very calm and loving individual.’
Haughton held a grudge against the police after they arrested him for brandishing a broomstick at neighbours at his bedsit in Hopton Road, Streatham, sw London, weeks earlier.
Neighbours there knew him as ‘the nutty geezer on the top floor.’
Haughton would blast out gospel music at maximum volume and brandish one of his collection of samurai swords in the garden shouting: ‘The devil is coming.’
When one resident complained about the music, Haughton pushed him down the stairs and then tried to kick in all the bedsit doors, causing £2,500 of damage.
He was arrested and charged but released on bail and was living with his brother in (35) Milford Gardens, Wembley, at the time of the attacks on the officers.
The relationship with his brother became strained and Haughton had been trying to get a room in a hotel without success before the blood bath at the butcher’s shop.
He was seen wandering around the streets flailing his arms in the air and chanting Psalms.
Police arrived to arrest him in Kingsbury after he was seen brandishing a fluorescent light tube in the street.
Officers tried to calm him down but he responded by screaming ‘God help me to kill my enemies’ and biting PC Stephen Barker on the arm.
The officer’s fleece was torn apart before Haughton was pushed away.
He then armed himself with missiles including a tin of baked beans from a local shop.
Haughton hit PC Barker with a rock before shattering the windscreen of a police car with a breeze block.
Sgt David Weir was in the driving seat but was uninjured.
The officers followed Haughton into Kingsbury Halal Butchers where he headed to the staff area.
He was repeatedly sprayed with CS but it proved completely ineffective against the maniac.
PC Thomas Harding suffered a deep wound to his abdomen that penetrated his bowel and left him needing a colostomy bag.
PC Alastair Hinchliff had his face and throat sliced open and was left with such severe injuries he was unable to speak properly.
And PC Andrew Robb was on crutches and unable to bend his leg for two months after he received a 5in wound to his knee.
Officers managed to pin Haughton against a display counter and tried to handcuff him, but he lashed out again with the knife at PC Sham Haque.
PC John Charlton was also bitten in an attack which lasted just 90 seconds
Haughton later told psychiatrists he believed police had implanted a chip in his body that could control his thoughts.
He told the jury he had not slept the night before the attack because he was trying to fend off ‘ground reapers’ using a sunflower.
‘I could hear a howl,’ he added, before howling like a wolf. ‘Every time the spirit was coming I had a sunflower in my hand as protection.
‘They were coming, they were saying all my neighbours was dead, the ground reapers, coming to take our souls. I was rubbing my hand across my neck, I was chanting in my bible.
‘Thousands and thousands, they were everywhere. They were just coming to get me. Everything felt so real.’
Psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph said Haughton had been suffering from mental illness, but he would have been aware what he was doing was wrong and was in control of his actions.
Haughton was convicted of assaulting PC Alison Spruce and causing actual bodily harm to PC Vicky Vincent during the arrest in Streatham on October 9 by unanimous verdicts.
He was also convicted of the attempted murder of PCs Harding and Hinchliff by a majority verdict of 11-1.
He was further convicted of wounding PC Robb with intent and attempting to wound PC Haque with intent, also by majority verdicts of 11-1.
Haughton was cleared of alternative charges of attempted murder in respect of PCs Robb and Haque.
He was also cleared of causing grievous bodily harm to Sgt Weir, but convicted of causing actual bodily harm to PCs Charlton and Barker.
He had denied all the charges against him.
