Schizophrenic guilty of Kingsbury butcher's shop bloodbath to be sentenced

- Christopher Haughton went into knife frenzy stabbing police- He was found guilty of two attempted murders
Detained without limit: Christopher Haughton
13 December 2012
WEST END FINAL

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A mentally ill man will be sentenced today for attempting to murder two police officers as he turned a butcher's shop into a bloodbath.

Christopher Haughton lashed out with a knife at policemen who cornered him in the shop and continued to injure the officers after they tried to restrain him.

Haughton, 33, of Wembley, north London, was convicted at the Old Bailey this week of the attempted murders of Pcs Alistair Hinchliff and Thomas Harding.

He was also found guilty of assaulting seven other officers.

Judge Peter Beaumont, the Recorder of London, said Haughton would probably be ordered to remain at Broadmoor secure hospital without limit of time.

Haughton, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, injured two officers during an incident in October last year.

He was allowed bail but in November he caused chaos when he launched his knife attack at a halal butcher's in Kingsbury, north London.

Three officers were taken to hospital with serious injuries after the knife attack.

Edward Brown QC, prosecuting, told the court that some of the officers now found it difficult to attend incidents where a knife might be involved.

Pc Harding had 9ins of intestine removed after he was stabbed in the stomach through a shield.

He suffered "unspeakable pain" and thought he was going to die.

Pc Hinchliff, who was stabbed in the face and arm when he went to help his colleague, said he had been left with scars on his face.

Mr Brown said: "He tends to shy away from incidents when mention is made of someone carrying a knife."

Mr Brown told the trial: "Some of the officers suffered very significant injuries indeed, all the result of this defendant's violence.

"It was perhaps only a matter of very good fortune that some of the police officers escaped with their lives."

Detective Inspector Keely Smith said later: "Haughton is a very dangerous and violent man.

"The police officers held onto him and arrested him despite coming under a sustained knife attack.

"Without the intervention of other officers at the scene who were able to eventually restrain Haughton, the outcome could have been very different."

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