Man shouted 'die die die' as he repeatedly stabbed taxi driver during 'frenzied' attack in Moss Side
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Police were called and found the taxi covered in blood, inside and out
A man who shouted ‘die, die, die’ as he repeatedly stabbed a taxi driver has been told to expect a lengthy jail term.
Christopher Smethurst, 32, launched a ‘frenzied’ attack on the driver when he stopped the car in Moss Side.
He was sat in the back of the cab, having been picked up a short time earlier outside a takeaway in Longsight.
In a desperate plea for help, the taxi driver, in his 40s, knocked on doors after escaping the car, but as he approached one house in Ruskin Avenue, Moss Side, he collapsed.
Police were called and found the taxi covered in blood, inside and out.
The taxi driver suffered cuts to his face, eyelids, chest, arms and hands and needed hospital treatment.
Smethurst pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on the first day of the trial at Minshull Street Crown Court, but denied attempted murder.
After he pleaded guilty to another unrelated offence on the second day of trial, of possessing of an imitation firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence, prosecutors said it would not be in the public interest to continue with the attempted murder trial.
Another count of possessing a bladed article was ordered to lie on file.
Judge John Potter adjourned sentencing until August for reports to be drawn up, and told Smethurst to expect to receive a ‘very significant custodial sentence’.
Opening the case for the prosecution, David Temkin said Smethurst had been ‘perfectly friendly’ in the taxi before the attack.
“There was no problem at all at that stage,” Mr Temkin said.
After the driver picked up Smethurst outside Chico’s takeaway in Longsight, they chatted and the defendant said he was from Crewe and was new to the area.
When they arrived at Ruskin Avenue in Moss Side, shortly before 8pm on November 11 last year, the driver asked him for the £5.20 fare.
Mr Temkin said there was no response, and as the driver was about to turn around the attack begun.
Smethurst slashed the drivers’ hands as he tried to defend himself, and the driver also pressed his horn to try and make him stop.
Prosecutors said Smethurst was in a ‘complete frenzy’.
“He just would not stop,” Mr Temkin said.
"It was sudden, it was frenzied, it was a frightening attack.
“The prosecution say the defendant intended to kill the driver.”
Smethurst grabbed the driver’s seat belt from behind using it to ‘pin’ him to his seat.
But the driver was able to release the belt and get out of the taxi.
Smethurst continued to stab the driver on the street, before he ran off.
The taxi driver later told police he thought he was going to die.
Smethurst, of no fixed abode, was arrested by police in Crewe 10 days later for possessing an imitation firearm.
