A WOMAN with paranoid schizophrenia stabbed one man and tried to attack another as she ran around a market square shouting “kill, kill, kill”, a court has heard.
Ayaan Ali, 29, stabbed Andrew Froggatt in the centre of Barnsley minutes after arriving in the town and buying a pack of knives from a Quality Save store, a jury was told.
Prosecutors said witnesses saw Ali running around the market stalls shouting before she “set her sights” on Mr Froggatt, who was walking through the town centre intending to get a key cut.
In a video interview played to Sheffield Crown Court, the victim described how he saw a woman wearing a headscarf before he felt an impact on his shoulder.
He said he turned and saw the same woman with a large carving knife, which he thought was about 12in long.
Mr Froggatt said: “She was brandishing the knife and going, ‘Kill, kill, kill’.
“That’s all she said: ‘Kill, kill, kill’.”
Mr Froggatt described how she then chased him for about 100 metres through the town centre.
He said he later found he had suffered a small puncture wound to his left shoulder.
She was brandishing the knife and going, ‘Kill, kill, kill’
Victim Andrew Froggatt told the court
Prosecutor Kate Batty told the jury of four women and eight men how, after Ali stopped chasing Mr Froggatt, she appeared by the market stalls again, where she turned her attention to window cleaner Mark Watson.
The prosecutor said Ali told Mr Watson: “You’re a male prostitute. I’m going to kill you.”
At this point Ali “tried unsuccessfully to stab him” but Mr Watson managed to avoid injury by entangling her in a market stall tarpaulin and using his window bucket to defend himself, the court was told.
Ms Batty read a statement from bank worker Kaye Asquith, who described frantically trying to shut the automatic doors when she saw Ali coming towards her brandishing a knife as she opened her branch.
Ms Asquith said she was “absolutely terrified” and added: “She was attacking people at random.”
The witness said: “When she was running around Peel Square, I could hear her shouting ‘kill, kill, kill’ and also muttering in a foreign language.”
Market inspectors confirmed Ali was asking where to buy knives within moments of arriving in the town centre at around 8am on September 8 last year, the prosecutor said.
She was seen soon after grappling with plastic packaging over a bin.
Ali was later arrested at the transport interchange around 30 minutes after she arrived in the town centre.
The woman is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of attempted murder, possession of an offensive weapon and affray.
She denies all the charges.
Judge Peter Kelson QC told the jury there was no dispute that it was Ali with the knife in the square.
He said the issue for them to decide was “about the defence of insanity”.
Ms Batty said the question for the jury was whether Ali knew what she was doing and also whether she knew what she was doing was wrong.
Ali, from Isleworth, London, appeared by video link for the trial, which is expected to last until early next week.
Ms Batty explained to the jury that it was agreed Ali was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and explained that she is currently a hospital in-patient.
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