‘Dangerous’ teenager who murdered grandfather while on police bail jailed for life

A violent teenager who was released on police bail twice – leaving him free to murder a beloved grandfather in a “shocking and cowardly” attack – has been jailed for life.

Rasheed Rahman, then aged 19, plunged a five-inch kitchen knife that he had signed out from his supported living accommodation into the back of Mark Carroll, 55, as he walked in a small London park with a friend on 10 April 2024.

Rahman, who was not known to Mr Carroll, then fled the scene, still armed with the murder weapon, sparking an hour-long manhunt. He threatened two other people with the blade before he was eventually caught.

The Independent revealed in June how, in the days leading up to the murder, Rahman – a Sudanese national who told immigration enforcement that he had come to the UK illegally via a lorry as a child – had been arrested on two separate occasions and released on police bail, leaving him free to kill.

And in the two months before the killing, Rahman had stabbed Iulian Cavaliuc in a separate attack in east London but was not tracked down by police due to delays in gathering CCTV.

The Metropolitan Police has since launched an investigation into contact police had with Rahman in the days leading up to Mr Carroll’s murder in St Martin’s Gardens, Camden – and whether anything could have been done to stop the killing.

Jailing him for a minimum term of 24 years and 59 days, Judge Dodd told Wood Green Crown Court on Thursday that “it was a shocking and cowardly attack”.

Judge Dodd said the act “left Mark Carroll’s family broken and grieving”, adding: “This was a random unprovoked attack by you on a wholly innocent unsuspecting member of the public. You are clearly a very dangerous young man.”

Mr Carroll’s daughter, Danielle Morley, told the court she was 19 weeks pregnant with her son when she heard her father had been killed in the shocking attack.

She said: “My dad was a loving, caring, and humble person and an amazing grandad to my two girls. He would never hurt anybody, on the day of the attack, all he was doing was spending time with his friends, in one of his favourite places, enjoying the sunshine, something he would do every day.”

She added: “Having to identify his body while heavily pregnant traumatised me in ways I cannot explain... Nobody deserves what happened to our dad, he was excited to meet his grandson, we had so many plans together,” she said.

Mr Carroll’s other daughter, Ayisha Carroll, told the court that she has been diagnosed with PTSD since her father’s murder and continues to experience flashbacks and often relives the moment she heard he had died.

“It feels as though the world has become a much more dangerous place, and I worry constantly about losing about other people I love,” Ms Carroll said. “The crime did not only take my father’s life - it took my sense of safety, my peace of mind, and the future I thought I would have with him in it.”

Ms Carroll said her mother, who remained close to Mr Carroll, lives with schizophrenia, which has become worse since his death. “She sometimes hears him as a voice and speaks about him as though he is still alive.”

In the lead up to murdering Mr Carroll, Rahman had been arrested after he lashed out at members of the public on a canal towpath in Camden Town, north London. He had tried to punch and kick people, threw a cafe sign into the canal, and brandished a metal pole before he was pushed into the water by a “public-spirited member of the public”, Judge Dodd said.

He had also allegedly used a brick to smash a window to break into an office in a church.

Even before the February attack on Mr Cavaliuc, Rahman was known to police. Seven months earlier, in June 2023, Rahman pleaded guilty to possession of a Class B drug and possession of a sharp pointed article – a broken pub dart – in a public place. Rahman was sentenced to a community order for that offence.

A few months earlier, in March 2023, he had been granted temporary leave to remain in the UK following a successful asylum application. He had been living undocumented in the UK before being picked up by immigration officers while working at a restaurant in Essex in 2021.

John Femi-Ola KC, acting for the defence, told the court Rahman had no medical defence to murder but had “a complex post-traumatic stress disorder”.

He said Rahman had been born in Sudan “and it’s quite clear that he suffered terrible experiences.” Mr Femi-Ola told the judge: “His village was raided by the terrorist militia group Boko Haram, who murdered his sister before his very eyes. He was then able to escape, leaving his family behind.”

Mr Femi-Ola said Rahman had been enslaved in Libya and tortured and raped. “He clearly has significant disruption and trauma from the age of 9. We submit that the trauma that he experienced in Libya, and Sudan, rendered him emotionally vulnerable and psychologically immature, at the time of these offences.”

Mr Femi-Ola also argued Rahman’s age was a “significant mitigating factor”.

Judge Dodd said it was clear from doctor’s notes that Rahman “is not suffering currently from a severe and enduring psychotic illness”. The court heard Rahman’s symptoms could worsen under stress or “in the context of the disinhibiting effects of illicit drugs”.

Rahman has a previous conviction for the possession of cannabis, and was found with the drug when he was arrested for Mr Carroll’s death.

Judge Dodd questioned whether there was independent evidence that established Rahman’s history of trauma or his age, but was told independent material was not available to support information about Rahman’s background.

Judge Dodd said: “There is in reality no mitigation of substance here, save for recognising your age at the time 19, and the absence as I find it of an intention to kill. But I do not consider that your mental health issues reduced the seriousness of your offending.”

The judge told the court that Rahman had previously been admitted to hospital for mental health issues, with cannabis use considered to be a factor in that admission.