CLARE FOGES: The unhinged Sudanese asylum seeker who brutally stabbed an innocent woman 30 times should never have been allowed on our streets. This is the question all women across Britain are now asking
The article describes the case of Ibrahim Albashir, a Sudanese asylum seeker with catatonic schizophrenia, who was convicted after attacking a 32-year-old woman in Leeds in March 2024, stabbing her 30 times with a broken bottle. It argues that earlier encounters with police, health services and other authorities should have prompted stronger intervention, and frames the case as raising wider concerns about public safety and asylum-system oversight.
It says Albashir had travelled to the UK through Libya, Italy and France, where he had reportedly been refused asylum and received psychiatric treatment. The columnist also cites several recent sexual-violence cases involving migrants or asylum seekers, using them to argue that cultural attitudes towards women and failures in monitoring pose broader risks; these claims are presented as the author’s opinion rather than a balanced assessment of crime trends.
- A woman in Leeds was stabbed 30 times in a 2024 attack.
- The article questions why the attacker was not more closely managed.
- It uses other cases to criticise asylum and public-safety policies.