Knife-wielding phone robber who repeatedly stabbed two Met Police officers in horrific attack in London’s West End is jailed for life

• WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT  

A robber has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years after stabbing two officers in London’s West End following a police pursuit.

Mohamed Rahman, 25, knifed police constable Joseph Gerrard in the neck and chest – ‘targeting where the Met (stab) vest did not provide protection’ – and Pc Alannah Mulhall in the arm early on September 16 last year while intoxicated.

The officers, who were attached to the Met’s Central West Command Unit responsible for policing Westminster, have both told how they experienced enduring pain and extensive changes to their lives after the incident.

Rahman, of Notting Hill, west London, was convicted in October after a trial at Kingston Crown Court of the attempted murder of Pc Gerrard and grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent against Pc Mulhall.

He was also convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Pc Richard Ulla, two counts of threatening a person in a public place with a bladed article against two other officers and possession of a bladed article.

Mohammed Rahman, 25, knifed a male officer five times to his head, arm and chest three days before the Queen’s funeral last September

PCs Joseph Gerrard and Alannah Mulhall at Kingston Crown Court today for the sentencing of Mohamed Rahman who stabbed them both in September last year

Rahman was further found guilty of robbing a member of the public, Mark Graven, which triggered the police pursuit.

He was given a minimum term of 20 years, minus the 449 days he has already spent on remand.

The officers he attacked had been dealing with another incident after a woman’s drink had been had been spiked in a nightclub.

PC Mulhall, along with another female police officer, approached Rahman who refused to take his hands out of his pockets.

‘What are you going to do if I don’t?’ he said.

PC Mulhall and her colleague called for assistance of two male colleagues who were in the nightclub itself, one of which was PC Gerrard.

Rahman pulled out the knife but police tasers had no effect because of the thick clothes he was wearing.

Holding the knife above his head, Rahman began to get closer to the officers and stabbed PC Gerrard in the arm.

He then turned towards PC Mulhall and stabbed her in the right arm with the knife cutting through to the bone.

The bodyworn footage shows the officers covered in blood before bare-footed Rahman is restrained with a Taser

Police officers at the scene in the West End following the stabbing hours earlier 

Bodyworn footage shows the officers covered in blood before bare-footed Rahman is finally restrained with a Taser.

PC Mulhall said: ‘He was holding the knife above his head and Jo is in the road.

‘He has gone to create distance, but a taxi has pulled up at the same time.

‘Jo has collided with the taxi and from the angle I was standing at, I could not see if he had stabbed Jo or not, so I did not know Jo had been stabbed at the time.

‘I remember thinking that the suspect was going to kill Jo at the time, he was not messing around, he was going to stab him, so I have hit him in the back.

‘I have turned to run and he has just ran up to me and driven the knife into my arm and I have not had enough time to react.

‘That is when you know you have been stabbed and then it is ten seconds of a weird, nothing is happening.

‘I remember when I was stabbed, I didn’t look at my arm, I knew I had been stabbed because it felt like I had been punched really hard, I knew he had a knife, I saw the blood on the floor and I could feel the blood coming down my arm.’

The officers but Rahman continued to approach them.

More officers arrived at the scene, and Rahman was once again tasered, this time there was a partial effect, as he hit the floor, with the knife spinning out in front of him.

Holding the knife above his head, Rahman began to get closer to the officers and stabbed PC Gerrard in the arm. He then turned towards PC Mulhall and stabbed her in the right arm with the knife cutting through to the bone.

Police officers at the scene of the stabbing near London’s Leicester Square

The scene in Shaftesbury Avenue, central London, where two police officers were stabbed

In an attempt to get the knife away, PC Gerrard kicked the knife back on two occasions, but the knife flipped over his foot and Rahman got up once again

He knocked PC Gerrard to the ground and began repeatedly stabbing the defenceless officer.

In total, he stabbed him between 11 and 12 times, with four of those stabbings getting through his stab proof vest.

He was stabbed in the back of the neck behind the ear, in the arm for the second time, in the ribs and in the centre of his chest, leaving him with a collapsed lung and losing serious amounts of blood.

Paramedics later told him, he had just three minutes to survive had officers not began life saving CPR.

He said: ‘I then broke off and he has got tasered again and he hit the floor.

‘I remember a security guard gathering me from behind from one of the nightclubs nearby and at this point I could see blood all over me.

‘I have got to the side, I noticed I am really struggling to breathe at this point.

‘I just could not get my breath.

‘More colleagues at this point just kept turning up and kept turning up, he is now detained on the floor.

‘They have cut all my gear off me and they have noticed the amount of stab wounds I had.

‘I was looking down at my chest and I could see the blood bubbling and the air coming out of my chest.

‘I was struggling to breathe at that time, so I knew how serious it was at that stage.

‘Then my colleagues were just all giving me CPR, trying to block the blood coming out of each stab wound and waiting for the ambulance to show up really.’

PC Mulhall had five months off work while recovering from her arm injury, before five months of desk work.

She is now back on the streets.

PC Gerrard was away from work for over a year and is on desk duty only but is desperate to get back on the beat.

When asked, both officers did not hesitate to say they wanted to get back into work as soon as possible.

PC Mulhall said: ‘For me it was a bit like a rollercoaster, there were some days where I could not wait to get back to work and other days.

‘I fixate a lot that Jo could have lost his life and even now I have good days and bad days, more good days and bad, I still want to be here.

PC Gerrard said: ‘For me, I have been using it as a goal really.

‘I have just been setting goals, I’ll get over this injury first and then I can do this and then I can get back to work and now I am back doing office duties, well the next stage is to get back out there really.’

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