On Friday 6th November, a 33-year-old man was jailed for life for slitting the throat of a 10-year-old boy as part of a series of random attacks.
The trial at Leicester Crown Court heard that Carlos Vinodchandra Racitalal, targeted victims unprovoked at various locations in Leicester. According to Leicester Mercury, in January he had committed a series of such attacks including driving into the back of the five-year-old girl in an Asda car park off Abbey Lane, attacking a woman as she walked home with her children, aged three and six, and stabbing her in the back of the head and targeting a man who was on his way home after a shopping trip. And the final attack on a 10-year-old boy left him with a 10cm (4in) deep gash to his neck.
Now, he has been convicted of attempted murder and was earlier sentenced to 21 years at Leicester Crown Court. He was found guilty of four counts of attempted murder, one count of causing Grievous Bodily Harm and three counts of possession of a bladed article, and one count of dangerous driving. According to Judge Mr Justice Thomas Linden QC, the offences "clearly demonstrated" he was dangerous.
He said, "You armed yourself with a weapon in at least three of these cases, went out and identified vulnerable members of the public to attack. Your attacks were random in the sense they were without any reason, still less provocation. It is also clear that your methods were likely to result in death as you intended, or very serious injury. It was only through luck rather than judgement that you did not achieve your objectives. You are one of the more frightening types of offender from the point of view of the public, and particularly vulnerable members of the public, in that they will have no inkling of what is about to happen and therefore no opportunity to take evasive action.”
