Sikh man’s hand nearly severed in U.K. attack

Assailant attacked him with a machete and hammer in an "unprovoked" racially-motivated assault

June 23, 2015 07:06 pm | Updated 07:06 pm IST - LONDON:

In an alleged racially-motivated attack, an Indian-origin Sikh dentist in the United Kingdom nearly had his hand severed in a brutal machete attack while he was out shopping at a supermarket in Wales.

Sarandev Bhambra, a trainee dentist, was shopping during lunchtime in the city of Mold, south-west Britain, when the attacker Zack Davies attacked him with a machete and hammer in an “unprovoked” racially-motivated attack, Mold Crown Court was told during an ongoing trial this week.

Pro-white slogans During the attack on January 14, Davies was laughing and shouting “white supremacy”, “this is revenge” and “this is for Lee Rigby”, making a reference to the British soldier who was hacked to death on the streets of London in May 2013.

Mr. Bhambra’s hand was almost severed from his arm and he thought he was going to die, the court was told.

Mr. Bhambra desperately tried to get away from Davies and threw items from the shelves to try and trip him as he chased him with the weapons.

Prosecuting barrister Sion Mihangel said the 26-year-old Davies had gone out looking for his mother’s boyfriend to attack him, but he could not find him. He followed Bhambra into a Tesco store because of his Asian appearance and attacked him within minutes with the machete and claw hammer, which he had in a rucksack.

Admits to attack A jury of six men and six women at Mold Crown Court heard Davies admit to wounding Mr. Bhambra with intent to cause grievous bodily injury, but deny an attempted murder charge.

The attacker's home was later searched and items of white supremacy and Nazism were found.

The prosecutor said that Davies accepted being responsible for the injuries and had followed and attacked Mr. Bhambra because of his “ethnic appearance”, but it was his case that he did not intend to kill him.

The court heard the victim suffered two wounds to the head, a wound to the lower back, an injury to the ankle and a “huge gaping wound” to the base of his left hand.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.