Judge told Mulazim Khan he’d ruined his hopes of becoming a barrister
An aspiring barrister studying law at the University of Gloucestershire has been sentenced to five and a half years behind bars for stabbing a man on a Megabus on Easter Sunday.
Gloucester Crown Court heard that 20-year-old LLB-er Mulazim Khan stabbed his victim, Aqil Waheed, at the back of the budget bus in Cheltenham bus station after he saw Waheed and his wife boarding the bus together. The court was told Khan — who, according to the judge, was “hoping to graduate in law and then practice [sic] as a barrister” — thought his new wife was having an affair with Waheed. According to prosecutor James Haskill, the pair were “just friends” and Waheed “is in fact gay”.
It was reported at the time that Khan, who — ironically — met his wife on a bus last August, fled the scene after the attack, but eventually gave himself up to police a week later.
The court also heard that 28 year-old Waheed, who suffered a collapsed lung and knife wounds to the face after the attack, was lucky not to sustain more serious injuries.
Khan was originally charged with attempted murder. This was later substituted for the lesser offence of wounding with intent, which carries with it a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Defending, Iain Munro told the court:
[Khan] is contrite, remorseful, and in difficulties trying to explain quite what made him act in he way he did. He feels he has been deceived by [his wife] and his anger, his rage, his disappointment and his desolation got the better of him.
Judge Michael Cullum sentenced Khan to five years and four months in prison, and reportedly told the young student that he had ruined his hopes of becoming a barrister.