Man sentenced to 22 years for attempted murder outside Milton Keynes Council offices

Farai Kambarani, 26, was convicted of the attempted murder of social worker Ruth Nayamazana, who he wrongly blamed for not letting him see his child.

Luton Crown Court heard Kambarani shunted a car into the back of the victim’s vehicle in the Saxon Gate car park in Milton Keynes city centre, just after the 8am on August 22 last year.

When she got out, he punched her in the head 10 or 20 times before running a knife across her throat.

In the witness box, the 34-year-old said he then pulled out a small knife with a silver blade and used it against the side of her throat.

She said: “He moved the knife up and down. I was screaming. I thought he was going to cut my throat. The blood started gushing out.”

Kambarani, a former carer for the elderly and courier, of Ashfield Road, Wolverhampton, was found guilty by a jury of attempting to kill Ruth Nayamazana by a majority of 10 to 2.

He was also convicted by unanimous verdicts of criminal damage and stalking his former partner. The court was told he had no previous convictions.

He had damaged a glass panel in the front door of Ms Nayamazana’s home on June 27 last year and between June 3 and August 23 last year sent messages to his estranged wife Tadiwa via WhatsApp and accessed her Facebook account, where he tried to change the password.

The court heard that Kambarani fled to the UK from Zimbabwe in November 2014 after he had been tortured when he was arrested.

He began a new relationship with another woman in Wolverhampton.

Later Tadiwa and his child moved to the UK and, in June last year, he became angry when they went to live with her uncle and his wife in Milton Keynes.

Two months before the attack, Ruth Nyamazana said Kambarani had come to her home and was ‘furious and angry.’

She told the jury: “He said ‘You have stopped me seeing my child. You don’t want me to see my child. Who do you think you are?’”

Mrs Nyamazana said he punched a glass panel on her front door and smashed it.

Sebastian Gardiner, defending, said: “Fortunately, her life was not endangered. She spent three days in hospital and made a full recovery.”

But he accepted the attack had caused serious psychological difficulties for the victim.

Mr Gardiner handed the judge references saying there was a very different side to Kambarani’s character.

“There was a breakdown in the relationship with his wife and quite acrimoniously.

“He felt a loss of control. He became depressed and started hearing voices and was in an unusual and irrational frame of mind.

“It made him behave in a way that was totally unlike him,” he said.

He said Kambarani has recognised the awfulness of what he has done.

Jailing him, Judge Philip Bartle QC said: “You became fixated with Ruth and saw her as an obstacle to you seeing your daughter - there was no justification for that whatsoever.

“You took a knife to kill Ruth. You put surgical gloves on. You took the knife. You shouted she was stopping you from seeing your daughter.

“You began your planned attack and punched her 10 to 20 times and told her you were going to teach her a lesson.”

Before using the knife, the judge said Kambarani told her: ‘Who do you think you are stopping me?’

He said: “You intended she should die.”

Judge Bartle said that in a victim personal statement Ruth, who returned to work in February this year, said she still lives in fear.

The judge also made a restraining order banning Kambarani from contacting his wife Tadiwa or Ruth for life.

The judge passed a 22 years custodial sentence with a 3 year extension, when Kambarani will be on licence.

It means he cannot apply for parole until he has served two thirds of the 22 year term. When he is released he will be on licence until the end of the 25 year sentence.