Killer who stabbed eight at random in knife rampage sentenced to life
A man who stabbed people at random, killing one and seriously injuring seven others, has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years.
Zephaniah McLeod carried out the series of attacks in the early hours of 6 September last year, as people were enjoying a night out in Birmingham City Centre.
CCTV and dashcam footage captured him walking calmly through the streets, stabbing people, then moving on.
McLeod pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, as well as four charges of attempted murder and three charges of wounding with intent.
He was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.
McLeod carried out the series of attacks in the early hours of 6 September 2020
After the first three stabbings, he disposed of his knife down a drain, took a taxi to his home in Selly Oak, four miles away, where he re-armed himself and headed back to the city centre.
It was then that he came across Jacob Billington, 23, from Liverpool, and his friend Michael Callaghan.
They were part of a group of seven friends returning to their hotel after a night out.
McLeod asked the group if they had a lighter before attacking Mr Billington and Mr Callaghan.
Mr Billington was stabbed through the neck. He was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead at 2.57am.
Jacob Billington was killed in the attack
His mother, Jo, had last seen her son as he left to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
“I can still see him leaving the house with the lads in the car outside beeping the horns getting him to hurry up, and he skipped out, and we just thought he was going for a lovely night out with his friends,” she recalled.
She was woken in the early hours by police knocking on the door to tell her that her son had been killed.
“It was absolutely awful. You feel like you had all the breath sucked out of you is the best way to describe it,” she said.
She then had to wake his sisters to tell them.
Abbie and Jo Billington describe the night Jacob was killed
Abbie Billington, 22, remembered the moment she found out her brother was dead.
“There are just no words to describe the sadness that I felt,” she said.
Mr Callaghan had suffered catastrophic injures.
McLeod’s knife had severed his jugular vein and carotid artery. He lost so much blood he had a stroke.
Michael Callaghan pictured before the attack
His mother, Anne Callaghan, was woken by a call from the hospital.
“We were called in the morning about 5.30am by a nurse to say that he was in theatre, and he was stable, and obviously that was terrible to hear.
“We didn’t know what she was talking about, and I said, ‘what’s happened?’ She said, ‘he’s been stabbed’. I couldn’t grasp it at all.”
They travelled to Birmingham and were told that if he survived, he would have life-changing injuries.
It was 10 days before they were confident he would make it.
Michael suffered catastrophic injures in the attack
Before the stabbing, Mr Callaghan and Mr Billington were in a band. They both loved music, and the former enjoyed sport too. But over the last 14 months, he has had to relearn to walk and still can’t use his left hand.
His mother said life is difficult for her son, who is mourning the loss of his best friend.
“Michael is just devastated at the loss of Jacob,” she said. “They were totally on the same wavelength, and you know he misses him every day.”
The court heard McLeod had been suffering with paranoid schizophrenia since 2012 and these were not his first offences.
He had previous convictions for robbery, escaping from lawful custody, possession of a firearm in a public place and possession of class A drugs.
He had spoken to a psychiatrist on the phone on 3 September, days before the attack.
McLeod puts one knife down a drain. Pic: West Midlands Police
“On release from prison in April 2020, we were unable to make contact with him as we were not informed of his whereabouts. I spoke to Zephaniah briefly on the phone whilst he was with his Care Coordinator…” Dr Ezzine Onuba, the psychiatrist, wrote in a statement to the court.
“Zephaniah continues to hear voices which he told me is there all the time and can be distressing.
“It was difficult to do a full assessment. He was due to be seen face to face on 24 September 2020.”
Superintendent Jim Munro from West Midlands Police told Sky News: “He wasn’t under any license conditions and actively being managed, so he’d come back out having served his sentence.”
Mrs Callaghan believes he should never be released.
“All I want is for him to be off the streets because I don’t think he can be ever trusted again,” she said.
“He’s not answered any questions, he’s not talked about it, we don’t know anything about why he did what he did. How can anybody say he’s safe again? I don’t think anybody can.”
McLeod arrested by armed officers. Pic: West Midlands Police
Mr Billington’s mother says she believes mistakes have been made by the authorities and hopes a serious case review under way looking into the agencies that were aware of McLeod will provide answers.
“For me, there’s quite a lot of unanswered questions about what happened on that night,” she said. “And what led up to that night in terms of… this was somebody well known to lots of different agencies in many different sectors, and yet still it appears that he was in a position where he did this.
“The fact that he didn’t appear to have been monitored in the way that you would imagine he would.
“As somebody who was known to be dangerous and had a long previous history of being dangerous, had a known mental health condition, none of which seems to have been taken into account at all in terms of how he was monitored.”
A fresh weather warning for snow has been issued for southern England, with cautions for snow and ice already in place across much of the country.
The Met Office’s yellow weather warning for snow covers the southern counties of England from 9am until midnight on Wednesday.
The warning stretches from Kent to Cornwall and up to south London and the Met Office said between two and five centimetres of snow could accumulate fairly widely, with as much as 10cm over higher ground.
Pic: Met Office
This week is expected to see the coldest nights of the year, with temperatures potentially reaching -14C on Wednesday night and -16C on Thursday night, both in the North East of England and Scotland, the Met Office said.
Weather warnings issued on Tuesday for snow and ice covering the Midlands, parts of North Wales, the North West of England, west and northern parts of Scotland as well as Northern Ireland will remain in place until midday on Wednesday.
The forecaster said some roads and railways are likely to be affected and there could be icy patches on untreated roads.
Pics: AP
Meanwhile the Environment Agency has said at least 300 properties have flooded across England since New Year’s Eve. It estimates more than 41,000 properties have been protected.
Heavy rainfall over the New Year caused significant river and surface water flooding across the North West of England and Yorkshire and snowmelt has brought further disruption to parts of England, particularly the Midlands, the agency said.
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Floods minister Emma Hardy said: “My sympathies go out to the people, businesses and communities impacted by the recent flooding across the country.
“I want to express my heartfelt thanks for the vital work that the Environment Agency and emergency services are doing to keep people safe. People must continue to follow their advice and sign up for flood warnings.”
Flood warnings
Some 100 flood warnings were in force across England on Wednesday, with people urged to remain vigilant over the coming days.
A danger-to-life warning was issued on Tuesday morning for the River Soar near Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, but was later removed.
People living in caravan parks in the area were urged by the Environment Agency to act, with a large-scale evacuation needed to save lives.
Firefighters have rescued dozens of people across Leicestershire since Monday, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service said.
Hundreds of schools were closed across the UK, with road and rail links blocked, as Manchester, Bristol and Liverpool John Lennon airports suspended flights because of the conditions.
A six-month-old baby who died after a collision in a multi-storey car park was on a family holiday to Wales.
Sophia Kelemen from Leigh, Manchester, died after the crash in a car park in the coastal town of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, on 2 January.
Sophia’s aunt, Adriana Kelemen, has now launched a fundraiser to help cover funeral costs.
Writing on the page, Ms Kelemen said “never in a million years” did she think she would have to write such a post.
Ms Kelemen said she hoped to “ease a very small part of [her] brother and sister-in-law’s hurt” by raising money to cover part of the funeral costs.
Sophia was taken to hospital after the crash and treated for her injuries but died the following day, police confirmed.
Dyfed-Powys Police said the crash happened on the ground floor of the car park and that a man had been charged in connection with the incident.
Sophia Kelemen. Pic: Adriana Kelemen/GoFundMe
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Ms Kelemen described her niece as “smiley and bubbly” and “so advanced for her age”.
Sophia was “playful and energetic” and “the cutest and most adorable girl”, her aunt added.
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A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police said Sophia’s family were being supported by specialist officers.
The force said it was a “tragic incident” and asked the public not to speculate on the circumstances.
Jess Phillips has said “nothing is off the table” when dealing with the grooming gangs scandal – including a new national inquiry if victims want one.
The safeguarding minister told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that she would listen to victims on a new panel that was announced by the government this week.
“Nothing is off the table,” she said.
“And if the victims come forward to me in this victims panel and they say, ‘actually, we think there needs to be a national inquiry into this’, I’ll listen to them.”
Politics latest: Tories told to ‘put up or shut up’
Her comments come days after it emerged she had rejected calls from Oldham Council to hold a government inquiry into grooming gangs in the town, and said the council should commission one instead.
That has led to tech billionaire Elon Musk attacking her and Sir Keir Starmer for not holding a national inquiry and accusing the prime minister of being “complicit” in the abuse.
Professor Alexis Jay finished an eight-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse in 2022 and set out recommendations for the government.
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The Conservatives tabled an amendment to the Children’s Safeguarding and Schools Bill on Wednesday to require a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs.
However, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sky News the Tories “don’t care about children” as the amendment could prevent the entire bill from going forward.
She said: “The measures that I’m setting out today and the legislation in many ways go further because it puts a requirement on all councils to have teams working to keep children safe.
“And the bandwagon jumpers that have come along in recent days, they don’t care about children, they don’t care about making sure that we stop this and we take action.
“They had years to do it and they didn’t do it.”
The Conservatives also rejected a call from Oldham Council for a government inquiry in 2022.
You can listen to Beth’s full interview with Jess Phillips in a special episode of Electoral Dysfunction released on Thursday.
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