Ahmed Alid: Morrocan asylum seeker who killed man, 70 in 'revenge' for the Israel-Hamas war jailed

A Moroccan asylum seeker who murdered a pensioner in the street in “revenge” for the Israel-Hamas conflict has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 45 years. Ahmed Alid, 45, stabbed Terence Carney, 70, six times in Hartlepool town centre early on October 15 – eight days after Hamas attacked Israel.

Minutes earlier, he attempted to murder his housemate, Christian convert and former bodybuilder Javed Nouri, by breaking into his bedroom and hacking at him while he slept. Alid shouted “Allahu Akbar” – “God is great” – during the attack at the Home Office-approved asylum seekers’ accommodation before fleeing into the street, still armed with a knife.

Doorbell camera footage showed Mr Carney, who was out walking in the town centre, crying out “No, no” as he was stabbed by the stranger. Prosecutors at Teesside Crown Court said it was not a frenzied attack but a deliberate attempt to target Mr Carney’s body repeatedly before he walked off, leaving his victim for dead.

In a holding cell at Middlesbrough police station after his arrest, Alid launched into a speech in Arabic saying that “Allah willing, Gaza would return to be an Arab country” and how he would have continued his “raid” if his hands had not been injured. Alid, who strongly disapproved of Mr Nouri’s conversion to Christianity, said God was “displeased” with those who went astray.

Mr Carney’s wife Patricia Carney said her husband went out walking early every morning because he enjoyed the peace and quiet on the streets. In a statement read to the court during the sentencing hearing, Mrs Carney said: “Tess was doing what he had always done and enjoyed doing – he was taking a walk on a street he believed to be safe and a chance encounter with this man ended his life.”

She said she had been with Mr Carney from a young age and, although they had been living separately for a few years, were “still very much together”. Mrs Carney’s statement said she could no longer go into town because it was “too painful” to be near the spot where her husband was murdered. “From that day on, my life would be forever changed. I don’t feel anything any more,” she said.

Javed Nouri, 31, said since the attack, he did not “trust anyone or anything” and that “all thoughts and feelings I had of being in a safe country have gone”. “I would expect to be arrested and killed in my home country for converting to Christianity but I did not expect to be attacked in my sleep here,” his statement read.

“How is it possible for someone to destroy someone’s life because of his religion?” Mr Nouri said he now struggled with mental health problems and had had to move cities, losing all his friends. He added: “I want to tell Ahmed: You are a weak person, because of your religion you attack someone in deep sleep and an old man who struggled to walk.”