Medlock: Offences driven by mental ill-health
The man who planned a terrorist attack at a London law firm and made a threat to kill an immigration solicitor has been sentenced to an indeterminate hospital order.
Cavan Medlock’s actions were “a direct and disgraceful attack on decent, hardworking people doing important and honourable work”, said Mr Justice Bennathan at Kingston Crown Court in sentencing the 32-year-old.
He can only be released from hospital if the secretary of state for justice agrees.
Earlier this week, the judge found he was not fit to stand trial and, given there was no realistic prospect of him becoming fit in the near future, he held a hearing with a jury to see if he had carried out the “acts and omissions” that constituted the two offences to which he had not pleaded guilty: preparation of a terrorist act and making a threat to kill solicitor Toufique Hossain.
The jury found that he had.
Mr Medlock had already pleaded guilty to four other offences: threatening with a bladed article in a public place, battery for the assault on receptionist Ravindran Tharmalangam, and two charges of racially aggravated causing of harassment, alarm or distress, for the assault and racist abuse of two other members of staff, Sheroy Zaq and Efrat Idelson.
At about 5pm on 7 September 2020, Mr Medlock entered the Harrow office in leading civil legal aid firm Duncan Lewis and demanded to see Mr Hossain, one of the partners.
Mr Hossain had been named in the press as having represented a number of immigrants to the UK.
Frustrated by not being able to see Mr Hossain, Mr Medlock attacked the receptionist while wielding a large knife in a stabbing motion (see video below).
Mr Tharmalangam wrestled with him and managed to disarm him and kick the knife away; in return, Mr Medlock seized him round the neck and punched him to the head. Mr Zaq ran to see what the disturbance was and managed to restrain and subdue the attacker.
Bennathan J said: “I commend both Mr Tharmalangam and Mr Zaq for their courage and resilience when dealing with an armed and violent man and thereby stopping this becoming a far more serious incident than it already was.”
Mr Medlock went on to racially abuse and insulted various members of staff, “specifically insulting those he believed to be of Pakistani extraction, Jewish, or from eastern Europe”, the judge noted.
In addition to the knife, he had two sets of handcuffs, two rolls of masking tape, and two large flags; one with a Nazi symbol and the other the Confederate South of the USA.
A search of his home and phone showed he had carried out research into the law firm and Mr Hossain.
The judge recounted: “When under restraint in the office, the defendant said he had come to kill Toufique Hossain.
“In police interview under caution, he claimed his plan was to capture Mr Hossain, restrain him and put the two flags on display to attract media attention and encourage those he described as ‘other nationalists’ to rally to his cause. He described himself as a National Socialist or Nazi.”
Bennathan J described Mr Medlock as having “deep seated racist views about any group of people who he regards as other than ‘pure’, white and British. He is prepared to use armed violence in pursuit of those views”.
He added: “I cannot be sure he had a settled intention to kill Toufique Hossain, but I am sure he might have done so in the course of threatening or restraining him, or if he simply lost his temper or grew frustrated at some stage of his scheme. Generally, the defendant was clearly a very dangerous man.”
Insofar as there was any consensus from the numerous medical reports and records of the his conduct while detained for the last four years, the judge said, “he is resistant to treatment, he is violent from time to time, and while there has been no final and authoritative label attached to the root of his state, he is clearly very unwell with a mental disorder”.
This meant “the only disposal I can make is a hospital order with restrictions… These offences were fundamentally driven by mental ill health such that I do not find I need to also make a penal order”.
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