Irrational hatred drove knifeman to wounding in Bradford

Dawid Szczerbacz,a Polish national, told people in the house in Bradford where he was a guest that he was going to stab his victim – and removed several knives from the kitchen as he prepared his attack.

Bradford Crown Court heard that that unprovoked and pre-meditated attack on “an innocent man” happened just after midnight on September 25 last year when Szczerbacz stabbed his victim between the neck and shoulder blade causing him to cry out in pain.

When he ran to a nearby house for help, he was said to be “about to collapse” and “feared he was about to die”.

Szczerbacz simply went back inside and, when asked if he stabbed the man, denied what he had done.

Szczerbacz has been jailed for the attack (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

He continued those denials in the run-up to a trial in which he was originally charged with attempted murder. On the second day of his trial he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The victim was rushed to Leeds General Infirmary where he was found to have suffered a collapsed lung as well as bleeding on the lung, which put his life in danger and required a chest drain.

Handing Szczerbacz an extended jail term of eight years plus five years on licence, His Honour Judge Jonathan Rose said he could expect to be deported to his homeland when he was released from custody.

He said: “You had taken against [the victim] when he had given you no reason to do so and had caused you no harm.

“Every opportunity has been made to find out why you stabbed the victim.

“You have failed to provide an answer.

“You have said that you cannot remember. You have denied stabbing him.

“This was an unprovoked attack on an innocent man.

“You harboured an unreasonable and irrational belief that people were against you, and they were out to get you.”

The court heard that 36-year-old Szczerbacz, who had previous convictions for violence in Poland, arrived in the UK in 2020 looking for work.

He moved in with relatives of his ex-wife and slept in the living room. The victim, a Hungarian man, was also staying in the house.

The victim was said to have been friends with Szczerbacz’s former partner for several years but did not know him well.

He said Szczerbacz would sometimes behave in “a strange and intimidating way” and would stare at him.

The court heard there were tensions between the two and that Szczerbacz accused the other man of using an app on his phone and talking about him in the days before the attack happened.

In the hours before the incident Szczerbacz was found clutching a knife that was missing from the kitchen. Later another knife was found in his trousers.

Prosecutor Matthew Bean said the stabbing happened after the victim went out to see Szczerbacz’s former partner to drop off food. He returned to the house after midnight to find the door locked.

Szczerbacz opened the door, spoke the man’s name, and then stabbed him.

When police came they found three kitchen knives, which had been recently washed, in the sink. None could be linked to the attack.

Szczerbacz was arrested and interviewed and denied stabbing the other man. He maintained someone else must have attacked him.

Mitigating, Michael Greenhalgh said Szczerbacz had received treatment for depression and psychosis in his native Poland but had no access to medication in the UK and instead used heroin.

He said that had worsened his depression and caused psychosis and added: “As a consequence he is unable to remember much if anything of the offence itself.”

He said Szczerbacz could not explain why he would want to harm him and added: “In all probability he was suffering from psychosis.”

That was rejected by Judge Rose as no defence had been raised to support such a contention.

Via a Polish interpreter he told Szczerbacz: “There is no evidence that you were paranoid in a medical sense, or suffering from mental illness at the time.”