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Newport man with mental disorder strangled taxi driver

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/ ... xi-driver/

A MAN with a serious mental disorder strangled a taxi driver before he took off his clothes in a woman’s garden and threw a brick through her window.

Kane Wannell, 28, from Newport appeared for sentence at the city’s crown court over two separate offences committed on the same day on February 13, 2023.

He had strangled Aamir Zia after getting into his cab, Emma Harris, prosecuting said.

The defendant attacked him from behind while sitting in a rear passenger seat as the taxi was being driven on the road in Newport.

Wannell also scratched the victim’s face causing him a small cut to his face.

The second incident took place at around 9am, also in Newport, when a woman saw him in her garden.

“He opened a can of Red Bull and sat down on a bench,” Miss Harris revealed.

“The defendant began to remove all of his clothes until his genitals were exposed.”

Wannell then made his way up the stairs in the woman’s home after smashing a window and she dressed his wounds after he cut himself getting in.

He then got into a bed and threw a brick through the window when police officers came to arrest him.

The defendant, of Clearwell Court, Bassaleg, pleaded guilty to strangulation, common assault and criminal damage.

Wannell has nine previous convictions for 14 offences with some of these including assault.

Darren Bishop representing him said his client had been “extremely unwell” at the time with severe mental health difficulties.

“He has very little recollection of these incidents,” he told the court.

It was added that the defendant had “expressed genuine remorse”.

Wannell has been diagnosed as suffering from a schizoaffective disorder.

The judge, Recorder Andrew Hammond, told the defendant that these were "serious and terrifying" offences he had committed.

But, he added, there were “significant mitigating features”.

The court was told that the defendant was an orphan with his father only recently passing away.

Wannell was sentenced to a 12-month community during which he will have to complete a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

He was also fined £100 and ordered to pay a £114 victim surcharge.

It's quite a truism that courts mainly deal with the mad, the bad, and the sad.

The strange thing is that there aren't really that many bad, just loads and loads of sad and mad.

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