Brit jailed after stabbing boy, 6, in the neck near school in Madrid
A Brit has been jailed for 10 years after he "swooped" from behind and stabbed a child with a 12-inch blade.
Albal Z, who was already known by UK police due to prior arrests, knifed the young boy in the neck just one day before his seventh birthday, near Hastings School in Madrid. The crazed attack took place on a zebra crossing after the boy had returned to the private British international institution from a PE lesson on December 10, 2021. Albal dumped the weapon in a street bin and fled the scene.
The victim, who was positioned at the end of a single-file line, was rushed into emergency surgery after he endured a four-inch wound, which affected his neck muscles and muscular veins. According to reports, the boy had told police upon arrival: “A villain has put his sword in me.”
The attacker targeted the boy outside the Hastings School (SOLARPIX.COM)On Wednesday, the Kosovo-born British attacker was slapped with a 10-year custodial sentence following his trial last month in the Spanish capital. Madrid’s Audiencia Provincial Court ruled the paranoid schizophrenic should begin his jail term in a high-security psychiatric hospital.
Albal, whose surname has not yet been released, was arrested 12 days after the horror attack. He was captured on CCTV fleeing the crime scene but his DNA on the knife police recovered proved key to his arrest at a hostel in Madrid. He had only been in Spain eight days before the attack.
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Police identified him using a transnational DNA profile exchange called the Prum system, designed to combat terrorism and cross-border crime which is understood to have flagged up his previous arrests in the UK. It was not immediately clear this morning if any had resulted in convictions.
Public prosecutors said they wanted him jailed for 15 years if convicted of attempted murder in a pre-trial indictment, accepting he suffered from a mental illness which altered but didn’t “annul” his perception of reality.
Abdul stabbed the victim in his neck by a zebra crossing (SOLARPIX.COM)They said in the indictment: “In a surprising manner and with the intention of ending his life, he swooped on the youngster from behind, without the youngster seeing him or being able to react.” As well as a custodial sentence, the trial judges ruled the attacker should be expelled from Spain after serving his time and ordered him to stay away from the child he targeted for 15 years.
He was ordered to pay the child’s family €45,000 (£38,500) in compensation. He is thought to have handed the courts almost half that amount before his trial. Police chief Jose Antonio Rodriguez - who led the specialist unit which helped nab the Brit responsible - told respected Spanish news website El Espanol overnight: “Here, the work of the scientific police was fundamental because the only proof we had was the knife with the DNA.
“That DNA had a name, a man born in Kosovo but with British nationality where he was already known to the authorities. He was tracked down to a hostel in Madrid. He had already bought another knife.”
The aggressor admitted to stabbing his victim at his one-day trial in Madrid on February 19. But his defence lawyer argued he should be acquitted because his mental illness meant he shouldn’t be held criminally responsible for his actions.
His argument was only partially accepted in the judges’ written ruling made public late yesterday. A police officer who gave evidence at his trial described the attack as part of a “pre-conceived plan”, saying Albal had been in the same Madrid neighbourhood of Chamartin where it took place two days before the stabbing.
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